Investigation of flexural and shear behavior of beams constructed using self compacting steel fiber reinforced concrete

Self-Compacting Concrete (SCC) offers the possibility to make the buildings more economical by involving less workmanship and shorter production times. For this reason, the use of SCC is increasing day by day. The fracture mechanism that can occur in beams against loads affecting the structures is very important in terms of structure behavior. For this reason, the beam elements need to be tested under various loads. Many experimental studies have been carried out to determine the flexural and shear behavior of reinforced concrete beams. However, sufficient experimental studies have not been done on reinforced concrete beams produced with steel fiber SCC. In the studies carried out, rebars were generally not placed in the beams. For this reason, within the scope of this study, the flexural and shear behavior of reinforced concrete beams produced with steel fiber SCC was investigated. For this purpose, reinforced concrete beams with different a/d ratios are produced with both fiberless and fibrous SCC. In the fibrous mixture, twin hook steel fiber having slenderness ratio of 40 was used for the 0.6% of the total concrete volume. In all mixtures, concrete class, w/c ratio and cement dosage were kept constant. In order to determine the aim strength of the concrete, 15 cubic samples of 10x10x10 cm were taken from both fiberless and fibrous mixture. The tests of the beams were started after the concrete reached the aim strength. A total of 16 reinforced concrete beams were produced, 8 fiberless and 8 fibrous with different a/d ratios from one to eight. These produced beams are tested in a four-point bending device. The load-displacement graphs of the beams were drawn by examining the flexural and shear behavior. As a result of the experiments, it has been seen that the steel fiber has a great effect on the flexural and shear behavior of the beams. Fiberless beams that break brittle due to shear and reach its maximum capacity have shown ductile behavior with the addition of steel fiber.