ABSTRACT
The ultimate shear strength of longitudinally reinforced fiber mortar and concrete beams, without shear stirrups, is examined by testing beams under center-point bending. Increases in ultimate shear strength of up to 183% were recorded due to random reinforcement with volume fractions of up to 2% of short steel and polymeric fibers. These experimental results confirm the dependence of structural properties on the fracture property of the material which has a wide range of material characteristic length. It is found that the shear strength can be simply related to the flexural and tensile strength, reinforcement ratio, span-to-depth ratio, and beam depth. These semi-empirical results may have practical implications. They provide an avenue for the use of fracture concepts in structural design without direct measurement of fracture properties. This is plausible because information on the fracture properties is already incorporated in the flexural and tensile properties.
