Evaluating Load-Carrying Capacity of Short Composite Beam Using Strain-Hardening HPFRC

The main goal of this study was to develop the short composite beams using strain-hardening fiber-reinforced concrete (S_HPFRC) and conventional concrete (CC) together. Firstly, the sensitivity of the hybrid fiber system to the enhancement of mechanical properties of plain high performance concrete (P_mortar) was experimentally studied. The ranking of the mechanical properties in terms of sensitive coefficient was observed as follows: direct tensile > splitting tensile > compressive. Next, the responses of short composite beams with various thicknesses of S_HPFRC were investigated under a three-point bending test (3PBT). Six beams with no reinforcement (type A) and six beams with reinforcement were tested (type B) with their identical dimensions of 150 × 150 × 300 mm (depth × width × span length). The compressive strength of S_HPFRC and CC were about 80.65 MPa and 21.12 MPa, respectively. Most of the composite beams were observed to fail in shear mode. And, there was a favorable effect on enhancing the load-carrying capacity of a beam as S_HPFRC was placed at a critical tensile zone. Finally, based on the test data, the analytical equations were proposed for the purpose of predicting shear resistance of the S_HPFRC — CC beam.