Investigation on shear fracture behaviour of strain-hardening cementitious composites.

This paper presents a scheme of double-plane shear testing to investigate the shear transmission mechanism of strain-hardening cementitious composite (SHCC) after crack opening; the focus is on the shear stress transfer behaviour on the crack surface of the SHCC, contributed by both the contact effect of the matrix and the fibre bridging effect on the crack surface. The experimental results demonstrate that the transferred shear stress on the crack surface of the SHCC is contributed by both the contact effect of the matrix and the fibre bridging effect on the crack surface until peak shear stress, whereas after the separation of the crack surfaces, it is influenced solely by the fibre bridging effect. It is confirmed that the fibre bridging effect on the crack surface of SHCC has considerable influence in the shear fracture behaviour of SHCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]