Construction and Building Materials 48 (2013) 548–553

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Construction and Building Materials

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Determination of size-independent specific fracture energy

of normal- and high-strength self-compacting concrete from wedge
splitting tests
Héctor Cifuentes a,⇑, Bhushan L. Karihaloo b
a
Grupo de Estructuras, Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería, Universidad de Sevilla, Camino de los Descubrimientos, s/n, E41092 Seville, Spain
b
University of Cardiff, School of Engineering, Cardiff CF24 3AA, UK

h i g h l i g h t s

 Wedge splitting tests have been conducted on two different self-compacting concrete.
 SCC showed a lower size-independent fracture energy than similar vibrated concrete.
 The Young’s modulus of the self-compacting concrete mixes is higher.
 The higher proportion of fine particles decrease ductility of SCC concrete mixes.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Wedge splitting tests have been conducted on two different self-compacting concretes (normal- and
Received 19 March 2013 high-strength) and the size-dependent fracture energy Gf determined from the measured RILEM work
Received in revised form 25 June 2013 of fracture. Then the specific size-independent fracture energy, GF, has been determined using the bound-
Accepted 21 July 2013
ary effect (BE) method of Hu and Wittmann and the simplified boundary effect (SBE) method proposed by
Available online 14 August 2013
Abdalla and Karihaloo. Tests on specimens of three different sizes and four different relative notch depths
have shown that a unique value of GF can be obtained irrespective of the specimen size and relative notch
Keywords:
depth. The results by both the BE and SBE methods are in very good agreement. A comparison with pre-
Concrete
Boundary effect
vious results from Abdalla and Karihaloo for normal- and high-strength vibrated concretes tested under
Size-independent fracture energy the same conditions in the same laboratory shows that the SCC has a lower specific size-independent
Transition length fracture energy than the vibrated concrete of the same strength.
Test conditions Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Wedge splitting tests were developed by Linsbauer and Tschegg
in 1986 [1] and subsequently modified by Bruhwiler and Witt-
mann in 1990 [2]. It is a very stable test for determining the frac-
ture energy of concrete. The specimens used are very compact and
require small amounts of material as compared to the notched
beams employed in three-point bending tests. However, the imple-
mentation of this type of test requires more sophisticated tools
than the three-point bending test and the number of results avail-
able in the literature obtained using the wedge splitting test of
concrete is very limited.
The specific fracture energy of concrete measured using the RI-
LEM work-of-fracture procedure by both the wedge splitting and
the three-point notched beam tests shows a size dependency [3].
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 954487485; fax: +34 954487295.
E-mail address: bulte@us.es (H. Cifuentes).
Hu and Wittmann [4] developed the boundary effect (BE) meth-
od that considers the influence of the back free boundary of the un-
cracked ligament area on the fracture process zone of concrete
based on the concept of the local fracture energy. By means of this
method it is possible to obtain a size-independent specific fracture
energy of concrete based on the measured fracture energy of spec-
imens of one size but different relative notch depths. Elices and co-
workers [5–7] proposed an alternative method to obtain a size-
independent specific fracture energy value, which consists of the
identification of the sources of experimental error in the RILEM
three-point bending method. They proposed a methodology for
eliminating the major source of error, namely by including the
work-of-fracture that is not measured in the RILEM method due
to practical difficulties in capturing the tail part of the load–deflec-
tion plot. In a recent paper Cifuentes et al. [8], showed that if the
size-dependent Gf is corrected following the methods of Elices
and co-workers [5–7] and of Hu and Wittmann [4], then the result-
ing specific fracture energy GF is very nearly the same.

0950-0618/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2013.07.062
 H. Cifuentes, B.L. Karihaloo / Construction and Building Materials 48 (2013) 548–553 549

Nomenclature

GF specific size-independent fracture energy CMOD crack mouth opening displacement

WS wedge splitting F vertical force at bearings
BE boundary effect P horizontal force at bearings
SBE simplified boundary effect h half-angle of the wedge
FPZ fracture process zone h height of the groove on top of wedge splitting specimen
Gf measured size-dependent fracture energy CMODc crack mouth opening displacement at the end of test
gf local fracture energy COV coefficient of variation
x distance along the uncracked ligament fc compressive strength
a initial notch depth fst splitting tensile strength
W depth of the specimen Ec Young’s modulus
a relative notch depth lch characteristic length
al ligament transition length

Abdalla and Karihaloo [3] and Karihaloo et al. [9] extended and
confirmed the boundary effect hypothesis of Hu and Wittmann [3]
and observed that a size-independent specific fracture energy GF of
concrete could be obtained by testing three point bend (TPB) or
wedge splitting (WS) specimens containing either a very shallow
or a deep starter notch. This observation was based on TPB and
WS tests, and they proposed the simplified boundary effect (SBE)
method [9] that greatly reduces the number of specimens to be
tested. Abdalla and Karihaloo [3] carried out a comprehensive
experimental study of normal- and high-strength vibrated con-
crete using the WS test for three different specimen sizes
(W = 100, 200 and 300 mm) and four different relative notch
depths (a = a/W = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5) [3].
It is the aim of the present paper to show the results of a new
set of wedge splitting tests carried out on normal- and high-
strength self-compacting concretes and to compare the fracture
behavior of these self-compacting concretes with that of vibrated
normal- and high-strength concrete made and tested in the same
laboratory and under the same test conditions.
Ninety-six notched specimens were tested according to the WS
test method to determine the size-dependent fracture energy from
the RILEM work-of-fracture. The geometry of the specimens was
the same as employed by Abdalla and Karihaloo [3] for vibrated
concrete. The BE and SBE methods were applied to obtain an esti-
mate of the size-independent fracture energy and the ligament
transition length of concrete. The results show a good agreement
between the BE and the SBE methods for the size-independent spe-
cific fracture energy and the ligament transition length of self-
compacting concrete. A comparison with previous results for nor-
mal- and high-strength vibrated concretes tested under the same
conditions in the same laboratory shows that the SCC has a lower
specific size-independent fracture energy than the vibrated con-
crete of the same strength.
ligament size al is a parameter depending on both the material
properties and the specimen geometry.
On the basis of the BE method of Hu and Wittmann [4] the size-
dependent measured fracture energy, Gf, represents the average
value of the variable local fracture energy, gf, which depends on
the distance, x, along the un-cracked ligament length (Fig. 1)
Z Wa
1
Gf ðaÞ ¼ g f ðxÞdx ð1Þ
W a 0
Substituting the bi-linear approximation for the local fracture en-
ergy variation (Fig. 1) into Eq. (1) and introducing the dimensionless
ratios a = a/W and al = al/W, a relation between the measured frac-
ture energy, Gf, the transition length, al and the size-independent
fracture energy, GF is obtained
(  
al
GF 1  12 1a
1  a > al
Gf ðaÞ ¼ a ð2Þ
GF 12 1
al 1  a  al
Making use of Eq. (2), the size-independent fracture energy of
concrete and the transition length can be back-calculated from
the size-dependent fracture energy Gf(a). To do that, it is necessary
to get the size-dependent fracture energy of a specimen of a given
size with a full range variation of the relative notch depth a. Usu-
ally, the number of the measured Gf(a) values is therefore much
larger than the two unknowns GF and al in Eq. (2). For this reason,
the over-determined system of equations is solved by a least
squares method to obtain the best estimates of GF and al. Duan
[14] showed that although the measured values Gf(a) depend on
a (and of course on the specimen size), the above procedure indeed
leads to a GF value that is essentially independent of the specimen
size and relative notch depth [13].

2. Theoretical background

Hu and Wittmann [4,10–13] argued that the effect of the free

boundary is felt in the fracture process zone (FPZ) ahead of a real
crack so that the energy required to create a fresh crack decreases
as the crack approaches the free boundary. Initially, when the crack
growths from a pre-existing notch, the rate of decrease is moder-
ate, almost a constant, but it accelerates as the crack approaches
the end of the un-cracked ligament. They represented the transi-
tion from the moderate decrease to the rapid decrease by a bi-lin-
ear approximation (Fig. 1). The bi-linear function consists of a
horizontal line with the value of GF and a descending branch that
reduces to zero at the back surface of the specimen [10]. The inter-
section of these two straight lines is defined as the transition Fig. 1. Bi-linear approximation of the local fracture energy of concrete according to
ligament size al or the crack reference length [11]. The transition Hu [10].
550 H. Cifuentes, B.L. Karihaloo / Construction and Building Materials 48 (2013) 548–553
Based on the BE method of Hu and Wittmann, Abdalla and Kar-
ihaloo [3] and Karihaloo et al. [9] have proposed and validated a
simplified method (SBE) that allows the estimation of the size-
independent fracture energy by testing specimens of a single size
with only two relative notch depths, one the shallowest possible
and the second the deepest possible. In this manner, there are only
two Eq. (2) to be solved in two unknowns GF and al. This simplified
method eliminates the need for the least squares method for the
solution of an over-determined system of simultaneous equations
and the time consuming testing of a large number of specimens
with different W and a/W. They have demonstrated that the neces-
sary values of the smallest relative notch depth must be a/W 6 0.1
for three-point bending and 60.2 for wedge splitting tests. The val-
ues of the deepest starter notch must be a/W P 0.5 for both the
TPB and WS tests [9].
In recent papers Muralidhara et al. [15,16] and Karihaloo et al.
[17] have revealed that the local fracture energy distribution along
the unbroken ligament can also be approximated by a tri-linear
curve. This tri-linear model is closer to how the local fracture en-
ergy varies during crack growth in a notched concrete specimen,
as evidenced by acoustic emission data [15]. However, Karihaloo
et al. [17] showed that the bi-linear model of Hu and Wittmann
[4] and the simplified version of Abdalla and Karihaloo [3] is quite
adequate in practice to determine the size-independent fracture
energy of concrete mixes.
3. Experimental procedure
The tests described in this paper were conducted on normal and
high-strength self-compacting concretes in the same way and in
the same laboratory as the previous tests carried out by Abdalla
and Karihaloo [3] on similar strength vibrated concretes.
The mixes of the self-compacting concrete made were designed
according to the method proposed by Deeb and Karihaloo [18].
Their nominal cube compressive strengths were 40 and 100 MPa,
respectively. The mix proportions and constituents are showed in
Table 1. The maximum aggregate size was 10 mm and the cement
was an ordinary Portland cement CEMII/B-V 32.5R.
The mixes were prepared in a planetary mixer by mixing the
coarsest constituent (coarse aggregate) and the finest one (micro-
silica), followed by the next coarsest (sand) and next finest constit-
uent (cement), and so on. Before each addition, the constituents
were mixed for 2 min. To fluidize the dry mix, two-thirds of the
super-plasticizer (SP) was added to the water. One-half of this
water–SP mixture was added to the dry constituents and mixed
for 2 min. One-half of the remaining water–SP mixture was then
added and mixed for 2 min. This process was continued until all
water–SP mixture was added in about 10 min. The remaining
one-third of the SP was added and mixed for 2 min just before
transferring the mix into the moulds.
The characteristic compressive strength (fc) was determined
from the crushing of 100 mm cubes in accordance with
Table 1
Constituents and proportions for self-compacting concrete mixes (kg/m3).
Constituents NSSCC
Cement 263
Micro-silica 0 69
Coarse aggregates (crushed limestone) <10 mm 859
Sand <2 mm 701
Water 180
GGBS 112
Limestone powder (<2 mm) 170
Super-plasticizer/cement 0.6%
Water/binder 0.48
Flow spread (mm) 750
T500 (s) 2.7
BS1881:part116:1983. The indirect tensile strength (fst) was ob-
tained using the cylinder splitting test according to
BS1881:part117:1983. The splitting tests were carried out on
100 mm diameter by 200 mm long cylinders. The static elastic
modulus of concrete (Ec) was obtained according to the
BS1881:part1 21:1983 by gradually loading a cylindrical specimen
in compression to approximately a third of its failure load and
measuring the corresponding strain. The strain was measured
using 30 mm strain gauges. The measured mechanical properties
(mean values and coefficient of variation) of the concretes are gi-
ven in Table 2.
Ninety-six cubical test specimens of different sizes (100, 200
and 300 mm) as shown in Fig. 2a were tested in wedge splitting
mode. The notch to depth ratios a/W were 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5.
The testing was carried out using a Dartec closed-loop testing ma-
chine (200 kN). The rate of loading was controlled by a crack
mouth opening displacement (CMOD) gauge at a very low rate
(0.0002 mm/s) so that the fracture occurred in a stable manner.
The loading arrangement for the WS test is shown in Fig. 2a. The
notches were made in the groove using diamond saw with a blade
of 3 mm in thickness and over 300 mm in diameter.
In the wedge splitting test the specific fracture energy of con-
crete is given by
R CMODc
0
PdCMOD
Gf ða; WÞ ¼ ð3Þ
BðW  h  aÞ
where CMODc is the value of CMOD at the end of the test and B = W.
The definition of the notch size and depth is shown in Fig. 2b and
the values for different specimen sizes are given in Table 3. The
splitting load P is calculated from
F
P¼ ð4Þ
2 tan h
where F is the vertical force on the bearings (assuming the frictional
contribution to be negligible) and h is one-half of the wedge angle
(Fig. 2c).
4. Results
Typical recorded load–CMOD diagrams are shown in Fig. 3 from
which the fracture energy Gf(a,W) was calculated using Eq. (3).
Table 4 shows the results of the measured fracture energy, Gf(-
a,W), with an indication of the mean value and the coefficient of
variation (COV,%). All values show a size-dependent trend in
according with that observed by other authors; it decreases when
the ligament size increases (i.e. when either the size of the speci-
men increases or the relative notch depth decreases).
The variation of the Gf(a,W) with specimen size is less pro-
nounced for the high-strength concrete due to the more brittle
behavior of this concrete compared to the normal-strength con-
crete. This effect can be appreciated by comparison of the ultimate
values of CMOD for NSSCC and HSSCC in Fig. 3.
The test results for Gf(a,W) from the WS tests were substituted
into Eq. (2) in order to determine the size-independent fracture en-
HSSCC
ergy, GF, and the transition ligament length, al, according to the BE
method. As the number of results of Gf(a,W) for each depth, W, and
460
the full range of the relative notch depth, a, was 4 (more than the
911 number of unknowns), the system of equations was solved by a
607 least squares method to get the best estimate of GF and al. These
123
0 Table 2
97 Mechanical properties of concrete mixes.
3.2%
Concrete fc (MPa) fst (MPa) Ec (GPa)
0.23
710 NSSCC 41.0 ± 11% 3.9 ± 9% 32.8 ± 9%
3.0 HSSCC 97.7 ± 9% 5.5 ± 5% 45.3 ± 7%
 H. Cifuentes, B.L. Karihaloo / Construction and Building Materials 48 (2013) 548–553 551

Fig. 2. Wedge splitting test geometry and dimensions.

men sizes investigated here. The accuracy between results from

Table 3 BE and SBE methods is very high even for the ligament transition
Specimen dimensions and the relative notch depth a. length values. The ligament transition length al for both types of
W a a0 a = a0/(W  dn) h dn f T h (°) concrete shows the same trend; it increases with the specimen
size.
100 12 17 0.2 15 20 30 50 14.5
20.5 25.5 0.3
29 34 0.4
37.5 42.5 0.5
5. Comparison with results obtained by Abdalla and Karihaloo
for vibrated concrete
200 30 35 0.2 25 30 60 100 15.0
47.5 52.5 0.3
65 70 0.4 Fig. 4 shows the size-independent specific fracture energy ob-
82.5 87.5 0.5 tained by applying Eq. (2) to the measured size-dependent specific
300 41 53 0.2 35 47 90 150 15.5 fracture energy Gf(a,W) from WS tests for normal- and high-
67.5 79.5 0.3 strength self-compacting concrete and compares it with the values
94 106 0.4 obtained by Abdalla and Karihaloo [3] for vibrated concrete. The vi-
120.5 132.5 0.5
brated concrete mixes tested by Abdalla and Karihaloo in the same
laboratory and under the same conditions were normal- and high-
values are shown in Table 5. The simplified method (SBE) proposed strength concrete with a compressive strength of 59.3 and
by Abdalla and Karihaloo [3] to obtain the size-independent frac- 98.4 MPa respectively. The size-independent fracture energies for
ture energy from the Gf(a,W) values corresponding to the deepest the vibrated mixes were 155 and 123 N/m, their split tensile cylin-
(0.5) and shallowest (0.2) relative notch depths were also obtained der strengths were 4.3 and 6.2 MPa and the Young’s moduli were
and are also shown in Table 5. 38.3 and 43.0 GPa, respectively [19].
The results in Table 5 show that the size-independent specific A comparison of HSSCC and HSC mixes with a very similar com-
fracture energy GF remains constant for the three different speci- pressive strength shows that the fracture energy of self-compacting
552 H. Cifuentes, B.L. Karihaloo / Construction and Building Materials 48 (2013) 548–553

Fig. 3. Recorded load–CMOD diagrams for NSSCC (a) and HSSCC (b).

concrete is lower than the corresponding vibrated concrete. This

can be explained by the fact that the HSSCC concrete contains less
coarse aggregate and thus a shorter frictional part of the load–
CMOD diagram. The difference is less noticeable in normal strength
concretes. Although the compressive strength of the NSSCC mix
(C40) is lower than the NSC vibrated mix (C60), the specific fracture
energy of these mixes is quite similar.
In order to perform a more detailed analysis of the differences
in the fracture behaviour between the self-compacting and vi-
brated mixes, the ductility of concrete is analyzed by means of
the characteristic length [17]:

Ec GF
lch ¼ ð5Þ
fct2

where fct is the direct tensile strength of concrete and considered as

fct = 0.65fst [20].
Fig. 4. Values of the size-independent fracture energy for NSSCC, NSC, HSSCC and
Table 6 shows the values of the characteristic length for the vi- HSC.
brated and self-compacting concrete mixes.
A comparison of lch for HSSCC and HSC mixes shows that the
self-compacting concrete is more brittle than a similar strength Table 5
Estimated values of GF and al with the BE and SBE methods applied to one-size
Table 4 specimens with different relative notch depths.
Size dependent fracture energy Gf(a,W).
Concrete Parameter Method W (mm)
Concrete a W (mm)
100 200 300
100 200 300
NSSCC GF (N/m) BE 148.9 152.8 153.6
NSSCC 0.2 87.2 ± 9% 108.8 ± 2% 111.6 ± 15% SBE 136.6 151.6 153.2
0.3 80.3 ± 4% 102.8 ± 1% 105.2 ± 19%
al (mm) BE 65.3 92.0 134.7
0.4 66.5 ± 7% 108.8 ± 2% 93.0 ± 17%
SBE 57.9 90.5 130.5
0.5 59.0 ± 4% 83.0 ± 13% 86.6 ± 15%
HSSCC 0.2 68.4 ± 14% 70.5 ± 4% 73.2 ± 11% HSSCC GF (N/m) BE 90.6 86.3 89.1
0.3 64.6 ± 15% 67.6 ± 13% 70.8 ± 13% SBE 90.7 87.0 88.9
0.4 61.7 ± 11% 66.1 ± 5% 65.3 ± 16%
al (mm) BE 39.2 58.7 88.4
0.5 57.6 ± 5% 60.6 ± 3% 63.8 ± 9%
SBE 39.4 60.7 84.6
 H. Cifuentes, B.L. Karihaloo / Construction and Building Materials 48 (2013) 548–553
Table 6
Characteristic length of self-compacting and vibrated [16] con-
crete mixes.
Concrete lch (mm)
NSSCC (C-40) 796
HSSCC (C-100) 310
NSC (C-60) 757
HSC (C-100) 330
vibrated concrete. As expected, the NSSCC (C40) concrete mix is
more ductile than the higher strength (C60) vibrated mix, despite
the fact that their specific fracture energies are very similar.
6. Discussion of results
The results provided in this work contribute to increase of
experimental data available for WS tests for self-compacting con-
crete mixes. In the literature the number of experimental results
by using wedge splitting test is very limited, especially in case of
self-compacting concrete. Since the tests were conducted under
similar conditions to those carried out by Abdalla and Karihaloo
[3] for vibrated concrete, the following similarities and differences
were observed:
 The fracture energy of normal- and high-strength self-compact-
ing concrete measured using the RILEM work-of-fracture
method showed a size dependency with a trend usual for this
type of test (Table 4) and similar to that observed in vibrated
concrete. The measured specific fracture energy increases with
the size of the ligament area (i.e. when the specimen depth
increases or the relative notch depth decreases).
 By using the size-dependent values of the measured fracture
energy and applying Eq. (2) for one-size specimens with the full
range of relative notch depths a unique value of the size-inde-
pendent fracture energy of each concrete was obtained accord-
ing to BEM (Table 5). The application of the simplified boundary
effect method showed very similar results thus confirming the
simplified BEM proposed by Abdallla and Karihaloo [3]. The val-
ues of the obtained GF were almost constant for each type of
concrete irrespective of the test specimen size.
 A comparison of GF of HSSCC and HSC mixes with a very similar
compressive strength showed a significant decrease in the fac-
ture energy of the self-compacting mix. This reduction is due
to the lower content of coarse aggregates in the self-compacting
concrete as these contribute to a higher values of the fracture
energy through a more pronounced tail part of the load–CMOD
diagram [21].
 A better understanding of the ductility/brittleness is therefore
provided by the characteristic length of the mix. A comparison
of lch for HSSCC and HSC mixes shows that the self-compacting
concrete is more brittle than a similar strength vibrated con-
crete. However as expected, the NSSCC (C40) concrete mix is
somewhat more ductile than the higher strength (C60) vibrated
mix, despite the fact that their specific fracture energies are
very similar. Lower strength concretes are in general more duc-
tile than higher strength concrete mixes. Thus, NSSCC (C40)
would be expected to be more ductile than NSC (C60). The rea-
son that is not so is because the self-compacting concrete mixes
are inherently more brittle.
7. Conclusions
From the analysis of the wedge splitting results obtained for
normal- and high-strength self-compacting concrete and by com-
parison with the available results previously obtained in the same
553
laboratory and under the same conditions for normal- and high-
strength vibrated concrete, the following conclusions can be
drawn:
– The specific fracture energy of self-compacting concrete mixes
is lower than that of vibrated mixes of the same strength. This
is due to the lower content of coarse aggregate in the self-com-
pacting concrete.
– The ductility of vibrated concrete mixes as measured by their
characteristic length is only marginally higher than that of
self-compacting concrete mixes. This is due to the fact that
although their specific fracture energy is higher, as mentioned
above, the internal stiffness of the matrix and consequently
the Young’s modulus of the self-compacting concrete mixes is
higher and the tensile strength lower because they contain a
higher content of fine particles.
Acknowledgements
HC would like to acknowledge financial support provided for
this research by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology
under project BIA2010-21399-C02–02. This work was completed
during HC’s sabbatical in Cardiff University.
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