Comparative study of fracture mechanical test methods for concrete

This paper describes and compares three different fracture mechanical test methods; the uniaxial tension test (UTT), the three point bending test (TPBT) and the wedge splitting test (WST). Potentials and problems with the test methods will be described with regard to the experiment and the interpretation, i.e. the analysis needed to extract the stress-crack opening relationship, the fracture energy etc. Experiments are carried out with each test configuration using mature, high performance concrete. The results show that the UTT is a highly complicated test, which only under very well controlled circumstances will yield the true fracture mechanical properties. It is also shown that both the three point bending test and the WST are well-suited substitutes for the uniaxial tension test.