LAUSR

Abstract The present paper is aimed to examine the fracture behavior of calcium aluminate cement concrete. A total of 90 notched beams with water-cement ratios (W/C) between 0.3 and 0.55 were selected and subjected to the three-point bending tests. Two methods, i.e. the size effect method (SEM) and the work of fracture method (WFM), were adopted to calculate the fracture parameters for all the mix designs. As shown by the obtained results, a decrease in the W/C ratio from 0.55 to 0.3 caused a linear increase in the fracture toughness. In this condition, the brittleness number increased by around 50%. In addition, the results also indicated that the maximum fracture energies, G f and G F , obtained from the SEM and WFM, respectively, were seen at W/C = 0.4 and also the characteristic length, l C h , in the WFM and the effective length of the fracture process zone, C f , in the SEM reduced. Furthermore, the concrete fracture surface became somehow smoother due to better cohesion between the cement paste and aggregate. Furthermore, the findings also confirmed the existence of an approximate correlation between the fracture energy obtained by the WFM and the one by the SEM ( G F = 2.28 G f ).