ABSTRACT
The shear strength and stiffness of partially cracked Slurry Infiltrated Fibre Concrete are of interest in view of recently proposed structural applications. In the paper, results of displacement controlled biaxial tension/shear tests on double edge notched square SIFCON plates are presented. Because of the strong anisotropy of the SIFCON, the orientation of the fibre system with respect to the loading direction is the main variable. Two different steel fibres are used. The specimens are first pre-cracked in tension, whereafter shear is applied. The results show that both the tensile strength and the shear strength of the material depend to a large extent on the direction of the fibre system. The tensile and shear strengths are very moderate when fibres are oriented perpendicular to the tensile direction and parallel to the shear direction. The results indicate that the decrease in shear stiffness of the cracked SIFCON decreases less in comparison to plain concrete results. True shear fractures have been observed in the sense that an array of inclined tensile cracks develops in the weak planes between the fibre layers.
