Flexural strength and fracture size effects of pervious concrete

• Pervious concrete notch bend tests were conducted to ascertain strength size effects.
• Inverse analysis was used to determine the tensile strength of bending specimens.
• Flexural strength size effects are observable if unit weight is normalized.
• A modified unit weight dependent SEL can be used to predict strength size effect.
• Pervious concrete is more ductile than conventional concrete.

A low strength/low unit weight and high-strength/high unit weight pervious concrete mix is studied using notched three point bend specimens to ascertain strength and fracture size effects using beam depths ranging from 100 to 200 mm. The results indicate the flexural strength is size dependent and can be predicted using Bazant’s size effect law utilizing a unit weight-dependent tensile strength parameter and a characteristic crack length with reasonable accuracy: R2 = 0.84 and MSE = 0.07 MPa. The tensile strength, and initial and total fracture energy, however, were not found to be size dependent.