Evaluation of the Splitting Tensile Strength of Ultra-High Performance Concrete

The splitting tensile strength of ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) is much larger than that of normal concrete. It was found that the studies on UHPC has mainly focused on the direct tensile strength or flexural strength, while there has been insufficient work to evaluate the splitting strength characteristics of UHPC. Therefore, this study is aimed at presenting experimental and statistical evaluation of the splitting tensile strength of UHPC. The splitting tests were conducted on cylindrical specimens of 100 x 200 mm size. UHPC was designed to achieve a nominal compressive strength of 200 MPa at the age of 28 days. Macro steel fibers were used to reinforce the UHPC by volumetric percentages of 0, 1, and 2%. The effect of fiber volume on the splitting tensile strength was investigated by the test results. The values of the splitting tensile strength of UHPC with and without fibers in some previous studies were collected together with this study and subsequently verified with the predictions of the splitting tensile strength obtained from the existing models. The appropriateness of these existing models was clarified. Finally, based on the regression analysis on the collected test results, a simplified equation was proposed to estimate the splitting tensile strength of UHPC having compressive strength varying between 120 and 200 MPa.