Tensile Stress-Crack Opening Relationship of Ultra High Performance Cementitious Composites(UHPCC) Used for Bridge Decks

Abstract

Two different UHPCCs having different fiber lengths and volume fractions are considered to be applied to bridge decks. The objective of this study is to estimate cracking resistance of the two UHPCCs. The notched beam tests were performed with the UHPCCs, and the relationships between load and CMOD(Crack Mouth Opening Displacement) were obtained from the tests. The tensile stress and crack opening relationships optimally fitting the measured load-CMOD curves were found through the inverse analyses. The UHPCC with 2% volume fraction of 13 mm long fiber has lower fracture energy than the UHPCC with 0.5% and 1.0% volume fractions of 16.3 mm and 19.5 mm long fibers, respectively. It indicates that the latter UHPCC is more effective in uniformly distributing crack formation and reducing crack width.