Shear and flexure behavior of hybrid composite beams with high performance concretes

Shear and flexure performances of composite beams with different engineered cementitious composites (ECC) to self-consolidating concrete (SCC) depth ratio were investigated. Shear reinforced composite ECC/SCC beams showed similar behavior compared to their non-shear reinforced counterparts until the formation of diagonal cracks but exhibited higher ultimate shear resistance and ductility. Compared to the full depth SCC and full depth ECC beams, non-shear reinforced composite ECC/SCC beams showed higher ductility and energy absorption capacity. Composite ECC/SCC beams showed higher number of cracks with lower crack width because of fiber bridging and micro-cracking characteristics of ECC. Code based equations and other design specifications were conservative in predicting shear strength of shear/non-shear reinforced composite ECC/SCC beams. Composite ECC/SCC flexure beams showed satisfactory flexural performance compared to their full depth ECC and SCC counterparts.