Direct tensile strength of lightweight concrete with different specimen depths and aggregate sizes

•This study examines the size effect in tensile strength of lightweight concrete.•The reference tensile strength for size effect model is established.•A stronger size effect with the decrease in concrete density is confirmed.•This study finds a stronger size effect in direct tension than in compression.•This study finds that the effect of aggregate size on tensile strength is negligible.

To examine the size effect in direct tension, 8 ready-mixed concrete batches classified into all-lightweight concrete (ALWC) and sand-lightweight concrete (SLWC) groups were prepared. In each group, the maximum aggregate size varied between 4 mm and 19 mm, and then the lateral depth of specimen with rectangular section ranged from 100 mm to 500 mm in each concrete batch. The size effect curves based on the basic formulas proposed by Bažant (1984) [1], Kim and Eo (1990) [2], and Yang and Sim (2011) [3] were also determined using a total of 28 lightweight concrete (LWC) data of current tests and 114 normal-weight concrete (NWC) data compiled from the available literature (Carpinteri and Ferro, 1994; Hu, 2011) [4,5], though specimens with lateral depth beside 100 mm is very insufficient even in NWC. The present experimental observations and verifications by prediction models clearly showed that the size effect is more notable with the decrease of the unit weight of concrete and it is stronger in direct tension than in compression. The validity of Bažant’s model (Bažant, 1984) [1] is significantly dependent on the maximum aggregate size, while the models proposed by Kim and Eo (1990) [2] and Yang and Sim (2011) [3] closely predict the size effect trend observed from test data, confirming that the influence of the maximum aggregate size on the concrete tensile strength and the size effect is negligible, especially for LWC.