Tensile stress–crack width law for steel fibre reinforced self-compacting concrete obtained from indirect (splitting) tensile tests

In this work, mode I fracture parameters of steel fibre reinforced self-compacting concrete (SFRSCC) were derived from the numerical simulation of indirect splitting tensile tests. The combined experimental and numerical research allowed a comparison between the stress–crack width (σ–w) relationship acquired straightforwardly from direct tensile tests, and the σ–w response derived from inverse analysis of the splitting tensile tests results. For this purpose a comprehensive nonlinear 3D finite element (FE) modeling strategy was developed. A comparison between the experimental results obtained from splitting tensile tests and the corresponding FE simulations confirmed the good accuracy of the proposed strategy to derive the σ–w law for these composites. It is concluded that the post-cracking tensile laws obtained from inverse analysis provided a close relationship with the ones obtained from the experimental uniaxial tensile tests.