Study on shear behavior of high-performance polypropylene fiber-reinforced lightweight aggregate concrete beams

The effects of high-performance polypropylene fiber (HPPF) content, shear span to depth ratio, and stirrup ratio on the shear behavior of lightweight aggregate concrete (LWAC) beams were studied according to shear tests on eleven high-performance polypropylene fiber lightweight aggregate concrete (HPPLWC) beams and three LWAC beams under symmetrical concentrated load. The failure phenomenon, stirrup strain, shear capacity, and deflection of each specimen were analyzed, and it was determined that the failure patterns of the beams were classified as diagonal tensile failure, diagonal compression failure, shear compression failure, and bending shear failure, in which the beams without stirrups having the HPPF content of 0 kg/m3 and 3 kg/m3 were a diagonal tensile failure, the beam with the shear span to depth ratio of 1 was diagonal compression failure, the beams with the stirrup ratio of 0.38 % and the HPPF content of 6 kg/m3 and 9 kg/m3 were bending shear failure, and the rest of the specimens were shear compression failure. Adding HPPF to concrete could effectively improve its tensile strength, limit the growth of cracks, and further improve its initial cracking strength. By increasing the HPPF content and stirrup ratio, the shear capacity and ductility of the beams could be improved. Increasing the shear span to depth ratio of the beams could improve their deformability of the beams while simultaneously decreasing their shear capacity. Based on the experimental study, the contribution of each influencing factor to the shear capacity was analyzed, and the shear capacity model of the diagonal section of the HPPLWC beam was established. The model has great prediction accuracy as shown by error analysis. •Shear behavior of HPPF reinforced LWAC beams are investigated.•The strengthing mechanism of HPPF in LWAC beams is obtained.•The failure mechanism of HPPF reinforced LWAC beam and the bridging effect of HPPF are revealed.•Shear capacity model of the diagonal section of the HPPLWC beam is established.•Contribution of each influencing factor to shear capacity is analyzed.