Correlation between the Barcelona test and the bending test in fibre reinforced concrete

Abstract

The Barcelona test (BCN) is an alternative method to characterize the post-cracking behaviour of fibre reinforced concrete (FRC). Given its simplicity, the reduced scatter of the results and low material consumption, the BCN may represent a suitable method for the quality control of FRC. For that, a correlation between the results of the BCN and the bending test is currently required since the latter is considered the reference for the characterization of the material and for deriving the constitutive design equations. The objective of this paper is to propose such correlation following an approach that takes into account the intrinsic variability of FRC. An experimental program involving 21 mixes of conventional and self-compacting FRC with either steel or plastic fibres was performed. Several analyses were conducted both for selecting the most relevant parameters and for maximizing the degree of correlation between the tests. The highest correlation coefficient between tests was obtained for the mixes with plastic fibres. In such case, the formulation proposed is able to predict the results with accuracy up to 75%. The correlation found is an interesting tool towards a simple and reliable quality control of FRC based on the BCN mainly oriented to large scale concrete production.