Flexural cracking behavior and calculation approach of reinforced highly ductile fiber-reinforced concrete beams

Highly ductile fiber-reinforced concrete (HDC) is a class of cementitious composites reinforced with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fibers and exhibits strain-hardening behavior and multiple fine cracks under tension. This study aims to evaluate the cracking behavior and propose a simple calculation approach of the crack width and crack spacing of reinforced HDC (RHDC) flexural members. The four-point bending tests were conducted for RHDC beams with a different ultimate tensile strain of HDC and tensile reinforcement ratio. The flexural cracking performance of beams was mainly analyzed. The results showed that the width, spacing, height of flexural cracks of RHDC beams was significantly smaller compared with those of reinforced concrete (RC) beams. An increase in the ultimate tensile strain of HDC decreases the crack width and crack height while has little influence on the average crack spacing of RHDC beams. The effect of the tensile reinforcement ratio on the crack width is notable for RHDC beams with a higher ultimate tensile strain of HDC. The increasing of the tensile reinforcement ratio decreases the average crack spacing and crack height of RHDC beams. Furthermore, theoretical formulas for the average crack spacing, average crack width, and maximum crack width of RHDC beams were proposed based on the bond interaction between rebars and HDC and the fiber bridging stress. The predicted values have good agreement with the experimental values, indicating that the proposed method is reliable to evaluate the crack behavior of RHDC flexural members. Based on an accurate validation, the effect of cover thickness, HDC strength, and rebar diameter on the crack behavior of RHDC beams was conducted and found consistent with the law of RC beams.