Identificazione del comportamento post-fessurativo di materiali cementizi fibrorinforzati ad alte prestazioni: il double-edge wedge splitting test

A novel experimental technique to identify the post-cracking tensile behaviour of high performance fibre reinforced cementitious composites (HPFRCC) is presented in this paper. The main focus is the use of this kind of materials for thin-walled structural elements. The proposed experimental geometry and set-up actually uncouple tensile and compressive stress fields which feature indirect tensile tests (such as in Brazilian splitting tests) in such a way that a pure opening mode fracture (mode I) is induced on a prearranged notched fracture plane. This allows an easy and suitable identification of the tensile behaviour of HPFRCC. The authors also propose to employ the new experimental methodology together with usual bending tests to characterize the material anisotropy due to the flow-induced fibre orientation, thanks to the superior performance of the composite in the fresh state and to an “ad-hoc” casting process.