Post-cracking behavior of polypropylene fiber reinforced concrete under bending and uniaxial tensile tests

The post-cracking tensile behavior of Polypropylene Fiber Reinforced Concrete (PFRC) was investigated through an experimental study; special attention was devoted to the effects of fiber distribution and orientation on samples performance. In this regard, an experimental campaign based on Uniaxial Tensile Tests (UTTs) on notched cylinders as well as three point bending tests (3PBTs) on notched beams was carried out. Uniaxial post-cracking tensile laws retrieved both directly (UTTs) and indirectly (3PBTs) were compared. In the latter case the fracture energy was higher because of the strongly dependency between PFRC post-cracking performance and fiber distribution and orientation. In addition to cast cylindrical samples, core samples were directly drilled from the beams and tested under uniaxial tensile tests in order to compare their post-cracking performance with that obtained by flexural standard tests on notched beams.