Inverse analysis of UHPFRC beams with a notch to evaluate tensile behavior

Recently, ultra high performance fiber reinforced concrete (UHPFRC) has been developed to attain considerably increased compressive cracking strength and ductile tensile behavior with high tensile strength through adding straight steel fibers in concrete mixture. Although benefits with UHPFRC were investigated through experimental program, it is difficult to predict structural behavior of UHPFRC members since theoretical approaches are limited. In this paper, inverse analysis procedure has been proposed for a three-point bending test with notched UHPFRC beams so that tensile behavior of UHPFRC could be rationally evaluated. On the inverse analysis procedure, failure mode of the UHPFRC beam was simplified and the simplified diverse embedment model (SDEM) was employed. To verify the proposed inverse analysis procedure, UHPFRC beams with a notch were analyzed with the tensile behavior of UHPFRC evaluated through the inverse analysis procedure. The analytical predictions showed good agreement with the load-crack mouth opening displacement (CMOD) responses measured through the three-point bending test. Consequently, it can be concluded that UHPFRC tensile behavior can be rationally evaluated through the proposed inverse analysis procedure. The proposed inverse analysis procedure can be useful in relevant research areas such as development of advanced design approaches or computational methods for UHPFRC members.