| Concrete is the most widely used man-made material in the world. Like other materials, it has been improved over time. Nowadays, with continued development of science and technology, a new generation of concretes is produced and is termed high performance concretes. A review of previously published work indicates that very few studies (in some cases none) have addressed the structural behavior of full-scale, high performance concrete elements. This study investigated the shear and fracture behavior of two types of high performance concrete - high-volume fly ash concrete (HVFAC) and self-consolidating concrete (SCC). The HVFAC incorporates up to 70% cement replacement with fly ash, and the SCC is based on using only chemical admixtures to convert a conventional concrete (CC) mix to a SCC mix with all of the necessary passing, filling, flowability, and stability requirements typically found in SCC. This experimental program consisted of 16 shear beams (12 without shear reinforcing and four with shear reinforcing in the form of stirrups) and also 16 fracture mechanics beams for each type of concrete investigated (HVFAC and SCC). Additionally, three different longitudinal reinforcement ratios were evaluated within the test matrix of shear beams. The shear beams were tested under a simply supported four-point loading condition. Results of this study showed that the HVFAC had higher shear strength and fracture energy compared with the CC, while the SCC showed higher fracture energy, but the same shear strength as the CC. |
