Locating the site of diagonal tension crack initiation and path in reinforced concrete beams

The most favorable site of diagonal tension crack initiation has been attempted to be located. Due to the numerous interacted parameters affecting both site and angle of diagonal tension crack initiation, twelve possible sites were investigated, at midheight of the shear span and at the bottom surface near the support of the beam with vertical and diagonal orientations. The first diagonal tension crack initiated from the bottom tip of the diagonal pre-crack at midheight of the beam as a result of constraint release. To verify the previous finding, a single diagonal pre-crack has been created at midheight of only one side of the shear spans in both normal and fiber reinforced concrete (FRC) beams. FRC beam showed different behavior, where couple of diagonal tension cracks initiated at both sides from the tip of flexural cracks regardless of the existence of pre-crack at one side of the beam. (C) 2014 Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V.