Influence of tensile softening properties on shear behavior of R/FRC beams

Many researchers have evaluated the structural performance of R/FRC, which refers to fiber-reinforced concrete beams reinforced with rebars.While it is well known that fiber inclusion enhances the shear strength of R/FRC, a unified evaluation method has not yet been developed.This study conducted shear-flexural loading tests on R/FRC beams to understand the effect of tensile softening properties on their shear behavior, by both experiments and simulations.In the experiments, various FRCs with different tensile softening properties were produced by altering fiber types and contents, and the shear failure behavior of the R/FRC beams was observed up to failure.Additionally, the effect of tensile softening properties on shear behavior was investigated using 3D RBSM simulation.The results indicated that the flexural stiffness of R/FRC beams after cracking is influenced by the magnitude of tensile stress in the FRC post-cracking and that the shear strength strongly depends on the tensile softening behavior of the FRC.It was also confirmed that the shear strength could be estimated using the fracture energy of the FRC.