• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.2A
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• pp.249-257
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• 2008

Various methods have been used to reinforce the cementitious material such as mortar and concrete that have weak tensile strength. Major reinforcing method is to mix matrix with fibers which have strong tensile strength. Recently, micro-fiber reinforced mortar has been studied which removes coarse aggregate and uses micro-fiber with small diameter in order to homogenize the matrix properties and maximize the performance of fiber. Performance of micro-fiber reinforced mortar showing multiple cracking behavior is hardly represented only by the flexural toughness. Therefore, This paper reports the cracking behavior as well as mechanical behavior for various mixtures which have different fiber type and mixture proportions to find the proper parameter representing the cracking characteristic. Correlations between flexural toughness and various cracking characteristics such as cracking area, width and number are explored. As a result, it is found that flexural toughness, volume of fiber and number of cracks are suitable for representing the characteristics of micro-fiber reinforced mortar.