Fracture behavior of concrete made with sintered fly ash lightweight coarse aggregate in comparison to normal weight concrete

Sintered fly ash lightweight aggregate based concrete has been reported to give mechanical and durability properties similar to conventional concrete. But concrete made up of lightweight aggregate possesses lower stiffness and shear strength resulting into a brittle mode of failure due to crack propagating directly inside aggregate which is weak in nature. The study presents findings from the experimental investigation of fracture behavior of concrete made with sintered fly ash lightweight coarse aggregate in comparison to normal weight concrete (NWC) at w/b ratio of 0.5, 0.4 and 0.3. The mixes have been tested for compressive and split tensile strength for both concrete types. On notched beams of size 100x 100 x 500 mm, a three-point bend test has been carried out for both lightweight and normal weight concrete to evaluate fracture parameters. The results of split tensile strength test indicated that the split tensile to compressive strength ratio lies in the range of 5-8% for lightweight concrete and this ratio lies between 5-10% for normal weight concrete. The study indicates comparable fracture behavior for both lightweight and normal weight concrete. The non-linear ascending and descending branches in load vs deflection curve of concrete with sintered fly ash lightweight coarse aggregate can be linked with the non-linearity in tensile type stress-strain behavior and formation of the fracture zone in front of the initial notch. The modulus of elasticity of lightweight concrete is significantly lower than normal concrete. The modulus of elasticity, area under the load deflection curve, tensile strength, fracture behavior etc. needs to be considered appropriately in the non-linear analysis of lightweight concrete.