Experimental methodology on the serviceability behaviour of reinforced ultra-high performance fibre reinforced concrete tensile elements

Abstract

[EN] Design codes include serviceability limit state (SLS) provisions for stress, crack, and deflection control in concrete structures, which may limit the structural design. When drawing on reinforced ultra-high performance fibre-reinforced concrete (R-UHPFRC), the process of cracking differs significantly from traditional concretes. Thus, it remains unclear whether the traditional provisions are applicable to R-UHPFRC or should be reviewed. Uniaxial tensile tie test is an excellent option to analyse and review these criteria. This work proposes a novel test methodology to study the behaviour of R-UHPFRC under serviceability conditions, which lets the study of the global and local deformation behaviour by using different measurement equipment. Two different types of R-UHPFRC ties with variant fibre content were tested. The global average tensile stressstrain curve, cracking behaviour, number, and width of cracks were obtained. Promising preliminary results admitted that this methodology can be useful to propose design criteria of R-UHPFRC under SLS.