Influence of Mineral Powder Content on the Fracture Behaviors and Ductility of Self-Compacting Concrete

Abstract

This paper describes and discusses an experimental study on the effect of mineral filler on the fracture behavior and ductility of self-compacting concrete (SCC). Based on an experimental program, a series of three-point bending tests was carried out on 118 notched beams. SCC was prepared with various contents of mineral filler with water-to-cement (w/c) ratios of 0.47 and 0.6. For all mixes, the fracture parameters were analyzed using the work-of-fracture method (WFM) and the size-effect method (SEM) to obtain a suitable correlation between these methods that is used to calibrate fracture numerical models. Given an increase in mineral filler content and a decrease in the w/c ratio in SCC, the results yielded the following conclusions: (1) fracture energies,