Correlation Between Flexural-Tensile and Direct Shear Behavior of SFRC

Abstract Correlations between fiber characteristics and the compressive, flexural-tensile, and shear strengths of steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) are proposed in the literature to facilitate the code-compliant design. In this study, the correlation between flexural-tensile and direct shear stresses on plain concrete (PC) and SFRC beams and columns is evaluated. The database included 1767 data from direct shear tests of beam and column, and from four-point bending tests (4PBT) of PC and SFRC beams. Data comprised measured results from this study and from the results of other research programs published in the literature. The main characteristics of the database were fiber aspect ratios ( l f / d f between 65 and 80), fiber volume fraction ( V f between 0.25% and 2%), and compressive strength of concrete ( f′ c between 28 and 78 MPa). From the trends observed in the experimental results, an empirical equation is proposed to estimate the direct shear and flexural-tensile performance of SFRC. The results of the statistical analysis showed that the equation is a suitable tool to estimate the maximum direct shear and flexural-tensile strengths of SFRC. The correlation between shear and flexural-tensile strengths would facilitate SFRC code-compliant design.