Mode II Fracture Toughness of Hybrid FRCs

Mode II fracture toughness ($K_{IIc}$) of fiber reinforced concrete (FRC) has been widely investigated under various patterns of test specimen geometries. Most of these studies were focused on single type fiber reinforced concrete. There is a lack in such studies for hybrid fiber reinforced concrete. In the current study, an experimental investigation of evaluating mode II fracture toughness ($K_{IIc}$) of hybrid fiber embedded in high strength concrete matrix has been reported. Three different types of fibers; namely steel (S), glass (G), and polypropylene (PP) fibers were mixed together in four hybridization patterns (S/G), (S/PP), (G/PP), (S/G/PP) with constant cumulative volume fraction ($V_f$) of 1.5 %. The concrete matrix properties were kept the same for all hybrid FRC patterns. In an attempt to estimate a fairly accepted value of fracture toughness $K_{IIc}$, four testing geometries and loading types are employed in this investigation. Three different ratios of notch depth to specimen width (a/w) 0.3, 0.4, and 0.5 were implemented in this study. Mode II fracture toughness of concrete $K_{IIc}$ was found to decrease with the increment of a/w ratio for all concretes and test geometries. Mode II fracture toughness $K_{IIc}$ was sensitive to the hybridization patterns of fiber. The (S/PP) hybridization pattern showed higher values than all other patterns, while the (S/G/PP) showed insignificant enhancement on mode II fracture toughness ($K_{IIc}$). The four point shear test set up reflected the lowest values of mode II fracture toughness $K_{IIc}$ of concrete. The non damage defect concept proved that, double edge notch prism test setup is the most reliable test to measure pure mode II of concrete.