The influence of coarse aggregate size and volume on the fracture behavior and brittleness of self-compacting concrete

This paper presents the results of an experimental investigation on fracture characteristics and brittleness of self-compacting concrete (SCC), involving the tests of 185 three point bending beams with different coarse aggregate size and content. Generally, the parameters were analyzed by the work of fracture method (WFM) and the size effect method (SEM). The results showed that with increase of size and content of coarse aggregate, (a) the fracture energy increases which is due to the change in fractal dimensions, (b) behavior of SCC beams approaches strength criterion, (c) characteristic length, which is deemed as an index of brittleness, increases linearly. It was found with decrease of w/c ratio that fracture energy increases which may be explained by the improvement in structure of aggregate-paste transition zone. Also, the results showed that there is a correlation between the fracture energy measured by WFM (GF) and the value measured through SEM (Gf) (GF = 3.11Gf).