Case Studies in Construction Materials 18 (2023) e01865

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Case Studies in Construction Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/cscm

Studying the compressive, tensile and flexural properties of binary

and ternary fiber-reinforced UHPC using experimental, numerical
and multi-target digital image correlation methods
Behrooz Dadmand, Hamed Sadaghian, Sahand Khalilzadehtabrizi,
Masoud Pourbaba, Milad Shirdel, Amir Mirmiran *
University of Texas at Tyler, Tyler, TX, 75799, USA

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Compressive, tensile, and flexural properties of ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPFRC)

Ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) specimens were studied in this research. Binary and ternary combinations of micro steel (MS),
Binary fiber round crimped (RC), crimped (C), hooked-end (H), and polypropylene (PP) fibers were used in
Ternary fiber
overall ratios of 2 % by volume of concrete. For this purpose, 100 × 200 mm cylindrical
Digital image correlation (DIC)
specimens, dog-bone specimens (length: 330 mm, width: 80 mm, thickness: 40 mm), and pris­
Steel fiber
Polypropylene fiber (PP) matic beams with a dimension of 100 × 100 × 500 mm (clear span: 450 mm) were cast and
Multi-target digital image correlation (MT-DIC) tested under compressive, tensile, and four-point bending tests (4PBT). A digital image correla­
tion (DIC)-based method namely, multi-target digital image correlation (MT-DIC) was used to
record the displacement and deflection values in tension and flexure tests. Furthermore, experi­
mental findings were used in numerical simulations and additional analyses were carried out as
complementary studies to provide a better understanding of the governing parameters; length,
width, depth, and overall size of the beams. Results revealed that a hybrid combination of micro
and macro steel fibers performs better than other specimens in all the investigated parameters and
the MT-DIC method proved to be a very useful tool in capturing the displacement and deflection
values. Furthermore, the inverse analysis approach for the numerical simulation of beams and
nonlinear regression-based models captured the direct tension and flexural results with coefficient
of determination (R2 ) values above 0.90.

1. Introduction

In the last three decades, developments in mix designs of cementitious materials have led to the emergence of high-performance
materials namely, ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC), engineered cementitious composite (ECC), geopolymer concrete, etc.
These materials, as the outcomes of the advanced concrete.
technology, in combination with various fibers, show excellent mechanical, durability, chemical properties, to name but a few,
which make them suitable for the fabrication of slender structures, aesthetic concepts from an architectural point of view, large-scale
structures, etc. Fibers have proven to play a crucial role in covering for the weaknesses of concrete. For this purpose, single, binary,
ternary, and quaternary blends of concrete have been incorporated into mix designs to help improve particular parameters of interest.

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: amirmiran@uttyler.edu (A. Mirmiran).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cscm.2023.e01865
Received 27 June 2022; Received in revised form 6 January 2023; Accepted 16 January 2023
Available online 18 January 2023
2214-5095/© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
B. Dadmand et al. Case Studies in Construction Materials 18 (2023) e01865

Fig. 1. Different performance levels of FRC based on fiber content (reproduced from [10]).

Numerous research exists in the literature which has reported enhancements in tensile strength [1,2], flexural strength [3,4], shear
strength [5,6], compressive strength [7], impact resistance [8], etc. Metallic fibers are high-strength fibers with an aspect ratio in the
range of 20–100 and mainly fall into the three categories (1) smooth and straight, (2) hooked-end (H), and (3) twisted. Inclusion of
these fibers in contents of 1–3 % by volume in the mix usually improves flexural properties, modulus of elasticity, compressive

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Fig. 2. Inability of LVDT to capture deformation under simultaneous translational and rotational displacement [15].

strength, etc. Better bond performance is usually attained by using H and twisted fibers. Synthetic fibers, which are fabricated using a
chemical procedure, are usually high in aspect ratio and small in size. Some of these fibers are aramid, nylon, polyester, polyethylene,
carbon, and polypropylene (PP). They usually have low density, high ultimate strain, reduce workability of concrete, and contribute
negligibly to mechanical properties such as modulus of elasticity. Because of workability issues, they are usually used in ratios less than
1 % by volume of concrete in mix designs [9]. It is noteworthy that the fabrication of UHPFRC is costly and a low water-to-cement ratio
poses challenges to its practical applications. To reduce the cost and allow for synergetic interactions in the mix design as well as
improving the features that incorporating a single-fiber use brings, hybridization has been used by researchers; binary and ternary
combinations of steel and synthetic fibers have been used in concrete mixes, but the studies regarding the ternary combinations are
very limited. In the following, research studies germane to the scope of this study will be discussed in brief:
Reliant on the amount of fiber, Wille et al. [10] proposed four levels of performance for the behavior of fiber-reinforced concrete
(FRC). According to Fig. 1, low fiber contents are characterized by sudden brittle failures with a single crack, and as the ratio of fiber
increases, tensile strength and energy-absorption capacity increase, and multi-cracking, strain-hardening, and deflection-hardening
behavior are observed. However, special attention should be given to the optimum fiber content, beyond which poor performance
is expected. Pereira et al. [11] studied the effectiveness of single and hybrid fibers (polyacrylintrale, PP, and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA))
on cracking strength of FRCs in volumetric ratios of 1 %, and 2 %. It was reported that different lengths of fibers resist crack formations
and propagations on different scales which is also reflected in the multi-cracking response of specimens.
Nonetheless, a synergetic effect of the hybrid combination of fibers was not observed and the tensile stress-strain response of single
fibers outperformed that of hybrid fibers. Kina and Turk [12] used binary, ternary, and quaternary blends of macro steel fibers (length:
60 mm, aspect ratio: 65), micro steel fiber I (length: 13 mm, aspect ratio: 87), micro steel fiber II (length: 6 mm, aspect ratio: 40) and
PVA fibers (length: 18 mm, aspect ratio: 90). (I) single macro; (II) macro and PVA; (III) macro and micro steel fiber I; (IV) macro and
steel fiber II; (V) macro, micro steel fiber I and PVA, and (VI) macro, micro steel fiber I, II and PVA were incorporated into the mix to
study the bond performance of self-compacting concrete. Results indicated that mix designs containing PVA show ductile
multi-cracking behavior. The highest load capacity was reported for ternary combinations of fibers with better performance in bond
properties compared to their hybrid counterparts. The lowest improvement relative to the plain specimen belonged to series VI of the
mix with only 26 % increase in the load capacity. Flexural properties of UHPFRC beams (100 × 100 × 400 mm) with 0.5 %, 1.0 %, 1.5
%, and 2 % MS fiber with a length of 13 mm, a diameter of 0.2 mm were characterized using digital image correlation (DIC) by Meng
et al. [13]. It was observed that the zigzagged pattern of cracking increases with the increase in fiber ratio with deflection-softening
behavior for 0.5 % fiber content and deflection-hardening for other specimens. Wavy low-carbon steel fiber, denoted as Nycon Type V
with a length of 38 mm, a diameter of 1.18 mm, and a tensile strength of 690 MPa; ZP305 fiber with a length of 30 mm, a diameter of
0.5 mm and a tensile strength of 1345 MPa; Bekaert brass-coated small fibers with a length of 10 mm, a diameter of 0.2 mm and a
tensile strength of 2550 MPa and another type of it with a length of 6 mm, a diameter of 0.16 mm and a tensile strength of 2500 MPa
were used by Rezakhani et al. [14] in ratios equal to 0.31 % by weight. Quasi-static compressive, modulus of elasticity, tensile and
flexural tests were performed on the specimens; size and shape of the fibers had minimal effect on the compressive strength while they
played a significant role in the tensile response of specimens. Small fibers contributed mainly to the tensile strength and reduced the
nonlinearity before the peak load while larger fibers proved to be efficient in bridging cracks and contributing to the post-peak
response.
A review of the existing literature shows that very little information exists regarding the ternary use of fibers in concrete and the
research concerning binary use of fibers is scattered and heavily dependent on material composition, type of fiber, etc. To address this
shortcoming, binary and ternary combinations of micro, macro and synthetic fibers were incorporated in the mix. The significance of
research is twofold: (1) Contributing to the existing scattered knowledge on the mechanical properties of UHPCs with binary fibers

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Fig. 3. Principles of (a) conventional DIC, (b) MT-DIC, and (c) flowchart of steps to carry out MT-DIC [15].

which are heavily dependent on several factors, (2) addressing the few research articles on ternary fiber-reinforced UHPCs as high­
lighted by the researchers in above-referenced studies. Besides, it is well known that steel fibers are expensive and mostly contribute to
strength; in hybrid fibers, PP fibers were used to assess the feasibility of reducing steel fiber. In ternary combinations, PP fibers were
used to assess the combined effects of macro steel fibers, micro steel fibers with high strength, and micro PP fibers with low strength.

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Table 1
Camera and laptop specifications used for MT-DIC [15].
Parameters Specifications of Camera

Model name DSC-HX300

Optical Zoom 35x
Digital Zoom (Movie) 70x
Number of pixels (effective) 20.1 Mega pixels
Shutter speed iAuto (2–1/1500)/Program Auto (1–1/1500)/Manual (30–1/1500)
Still image resolution 4:3 mode: 20 M (5152 × 3864)/10 M (3648 × 2736)/5 M (2592 × 1944)/VGA/16:9 mode: 15 M (5152 × 2896)/2 M (1920 ×
1080)
Recording format Still images: JPEG (DCF, Exif, MPF Baseline) compliant, DPOF compatible
Screen type 2.95 in (3.0 type) (4:3)/460,800 dots/Xtra Fine/ TFT LCD
Angle of view (35-mm format equivalent): 82 deg.− 2 deg. 50 min (25–875 mm)
Specifications of laptop
Model Name ROG GL553VE
CPU Intel Core i7–7700HQ
GPU NVIDIA GTX 1050 (2 GB GDDR5)
Display ´
´
15.6, full HD (1920 × 1080), TN
Storage 256 GB SSD+ 1000 GB HDD
RAM 12 GB DDR4

Table 2
Mix design and chemical composition of cementitious materials (by weight).
Material 3 % fiber content 6 % fiber content

Cement 32 32
Fine Sand 40.45 38.59
Silica fume 9.125 8.54
Quartz powder 8.225 7.67
Superplasticizer 1.2 1.2
Fiber 3 (1 % by volume) 6 (2 % by volume)
Water 6 6

Table 3
Specifications of fibers.
Type L (mm) D/W (mm) f t (MPa) E (GPa)

Round crimped (RC) 30 0.85/- 2000 200

Crimped (C) 30 0.5 × 2 1800 200
Hooked-end (H) 30 0.76/- 1900 200
Straight micro steel (MS) 13 0.16/- 2700 200
Polypropylene (PP) 15 0.48/- 400 6.9

*: Length; D/W: Diameter/Width; ft (MPa): Tensile strength; E: Modulus of Elasticity

2. Multi-target digital image correlation

In this study, a DIC-based method is adopted which has been successfully used by the third author to capture the deformation and
buckling of steel-plate shear walls [15]. DIC methods are a better choice than the conventional LVDTs since they can capture the 2D
and 3D deformed pattern almost in any direction as opposed to the use of LVDTs which only capture the response in a single direction
and in cases where the deformed shape of the structural element, say a point of interest in a beam-column connection, undergoes
displacements in two directions, LVDT is only able to capture the response in the direction which it has been installed (Fig. 2). In the
multi-target digital image correlation (MT-DIC) approach, circular labels are stuck to the surface of the specimen and displacement of
their center is tracked during loading by means of consecutive shots by the user. Based on the obtained data, processing of the images
and classical finite element formulation for four-node rectangular element, strain fields are plotted.

2.1. DIC vs. MT-DIC

Using the DIC method, shots from the specimen surface prior to and after loading are used to calculate the deformation parameters
and the initial image taken at the undeformed stage serves as the reference image. For better efficiency, a random scatter of speckle
patterns is spread on the specimen surface. A usually small square from the initial image is selected as the “reference subset” and a
larger square is opted as a “searching subset” from the deformed image (Fig. 3(a)).

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Fig. 4. Direct tensile detailing (a) test setup detailing and unconstrained DOFs except for in the direction of loading, and (b) typical tensile
specimens with colorful labels to monitor displacements using MT-DIC.

A regular set of circular labels with a diameter of 7 mm, stuck to the surface of the specimen is used instead of a speckle pattern in
the MT-DIC method. Choosing a circular shape is advantages as it allows capturing the deformation pattern in any direction with an
equal amount of noise as opposed to other shapes such as triangles, rectangular, etc. Each label is tracked separately (Fig. 3(b)). In
other words, in lieu of correlation between subset images, a correlation between single labels is extracted. Using a regular pattern of
labels eliminates the errors originating from speckle size and the selection of subsets. It is noteworthy that MT-DIC is weak in capturing
crack development than the conventional DIC method. In summary, the methodology to capture the deformed shape is as follows:

1. Identification of labels and their center (x(i,j) , y(i,j) ) as well as their center-to-center distance, a, in the reference image (Fig. 3(b)). a is
equal to 30 mm in this study.
2. A circular search area with a radius of r < a/2 is assumed for each label, the value of which can be determined by the user at the
beginning. If the target label was not found in the specified search area, radius of search is gradually increased up to r = a/2 (Fig. 3
(b)).

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Fig. 5. Bending test (a) dimensions of the specimens, and (b) typical beam specimen with colorful labels to track displacement using MT-DIC.

Fig. 6. (a) Definition of characteristic length and (b) post- cracking tensile function for different specimens.

Table 4
Compression test results.
ID Compressive strength (MPa) Modulus of Elasticity (GPa)

RC1MS1 231.04 48.64

C1MS1 217.00 47.14
H1MS1 219.58 47.42
RC1PP1 196.34 44.84
C1PP1 195.57 44.75
H1PP1 195.61 44.75
RC0.67MS0.67PP0.67 215.97 47.03
C0.67MS0.67PP0.67 211.21 46.51
H0.67MS0.67PP0.67 208.81 46.24

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Fig. 7. MT-DIC results for direct tensile loading.

3. In cases of tearing, buckling (for steel plates, for example), some labels may disappear from view and the program cannot track the
label. In these cases, given the regular pattern of labels, the new coordinate of the missing label is assumed as the average co­
ordinates of the adjacent labels. Upon re-emergence, the missing label can be tracked again in the subsequent images.

In this study, area of interest is the surface of the concrete specimen and hence, only 2D deformations are considered.
Evaluation of relative displacements of labels with respect to one another and in relation to the undeformed shape allows to
calculate deformations and other relevant desired parameters based on the finite element theory. Principles of conventional DIC and
MT-DIC are given in Fig. 3(a)–(c), respectively. Specifications of the camera and laptop used for this purpose are given in Table 1.

2.2. Limitations of MT-DIC

1. 3D deformations cannot be captured using this method.

2. In cases where more than one label disappears from view, say severe buckling or folding of a steel plate, errors occur.
3. Sensitivity of the model to light intensity in the atmosphere (constant light intensity is desirable).
4. In case of large deformations, labels may not fit into the camera’s framework, rendering the tracking process impossible.

Large spacing (small number of labels) between circular labels means loss of accuracy. The choice of the number of labels is based

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Fig. 8. (a) Cracking pattern, and (b) Axial strain contours in dog-bone specimens obtained by MT-DIC and accurate estimation of the cracks’
location (from left to right: RC1MS1-C1MS1-H1MS1-RC1PP1-C1PP1-H1PP1-RC0.67MS0.67PP0.67-C0.67MS0.67PP0.67-H0.67MS0.67PP0.67).

Table 5
Regression parameters for load-displacement curves of RC1MS1 dog-bone specimen.
ID Parameters Value R2 Adj. R2

RC1MS1 a (Std.) 0.02416 0.98441 0.98439

b (Std.) 0.61482
c (Std.) -1.09623
d (Std.) 0.72777

on a trial- and error method and closely related to the pixel size of the label; too small labels will cause error. Based on a trial-and-error
method, labels larger than 5 mm in diameter were found suitable and hence, circles with a diameter of 7 mm were chosen. It is
noteworthy that the resolution of the camera used in this study only allows the detection of macro cracks. For detailed description of
the method, calibration, accuracy, source of errors, etc. the reader is referred to Khalilzadeh et al. [15].

3. Experimental program

3.1. Materials and mix design

Type II Portland Cement, fine sand, silica fume with a size of 229 nm (sieved before use), poly-carboxylate ether-based high-range

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Fig. 9. Comparison of normalized experimental and regression-based load-displacement curves for dog-bone specimens.

water-reducing agent as a superplasticizer (i.e., AURAMIX), quartz powder, water, and various steel fibers were used to fabricate
UHPFRC specimens. Mix design, chemical composition, and properties of steel fibers are given in Tables 2 and 3. It is noteworthy that
the values expressed in Table 2 are percentages of each composition per unit weight of concrete. For fibers, however, it is common to
express their content by volume of concrete. Hence, besides their content by weight, their content by volume has been given in pa­
rentheses as well. Furthermore, irrespective of the fiber type or their combination, overall ratio of fibers in each mix is 2 % by volume,
and the share of each fiber is proportionate to its respective density.

3.2. Compression tests

Compression tests were carried out on 28-day 150 × 300 mm cylinder specimens according to ASTM C39/C39M [16] with a rate of
0.1 mm/min. Moduli of elasticity tests were carried out on three specimens and an average value was used in calculations according to
ASTM C469/C469M-14 [17] as given in Eq. (1):
′
0.4f c − fc1
Ec = (1)
ε2 − 0.00005

where Ec : modulus of elasticity; f c : compressive stress corresponding to strain ε2 , and fc1 : compressive stress corresponding to an axial
′

strain of 0.00005. Compression test results are given in Table 3. It should be highlighted that the MT-DIC method was not used in
compression and modulus of elasticity tests and their determination followed the procedure given in the standard guidelines stated
above.

3.3. Tensile tests

Direct tensile tests were carried out on dog-bone specimens with an overall length of 325 mm, a width of 80 mm, and a thickness of
40 mm. Load values were recorded using a universal testing machine (UTM) with a capacity of 1000 kN. Dimensions of the narrow
cross-section were 40 × 40 mm. It is noteworthy that, only the axial degree-of-freedom (DOF) was constrained in the tensile test
method. Inclined compartments of the tensile setup only served as a means to grab the specimen and therefore, no additional stress was
imposed on the specimen (Fig. 4). The load was applied in a displacement-controlled manner with a rate of 0.1 mm/min. As previously
mentioned, the center of colorful labels was tracked to record displacement values.

3.4. Flexural tests

Four-point-bending tests (4PBT) were performed on 100 × 100 × 500 mm beams with a clear span of 450 mm according to ASTM
C1609/C1609M [18]. Load values were recorded using a universal testing machine (UTM) with a capacity of 1000 kN. Details of the
4PBT are given in Fig. 5. Eq. (2) was used to calculate.
flexural strengths from experimental tests:
Mc
σ= (2)
I

where σ is the flexural strength (MPa); M is the bending moment (N.mm), c is the perpendicular distance from the neutral axis to a
point farthest away from the neutral axis (mm), and I is the moment of inertia of the cross-sectional area about the neutral axis (mm4 ).

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Fig. 10. Comparison of MT-DIC, and numerical flexural load-deflection curves under 4PBT.

4. Numerical simulation

Based on the literature, there are numerous software to model FRCs [19]. In this study, ATENA [20] along with GID [21]
pre-processor software was used to simulate the behavior of UHPFRC beams in flexure. This software has been used by numerous
researchers to model normal concrete [22–24], and FRC [25–29]. Given that, to the best knowledge of the authors, there is not a
unified method to model FRC, an inverse analysis based on the developers of the software [20] was used to obtain the post-cracking
tensile stress vs. fracture strain of UHPFRCs. For this purpose, NonlinearCementitious2User material model, which uses a fracture-plastic
approach, was used to model concrete and a linear elastic steel plate was used as a material for loading plates and supports. Moduli of
elasticity, tensile strength, and compressive strength of the specimens were used as input parameters. Eight-node hexahedral elements
were used to model concrete, steel supports and loading plates. The load was applied in a displacement-controlled manner with a rate
of 0.1 mm/step until failure occurred. Monitoring points were used to record the reaction values at the load plates and mid-span of the
beam. Newton-Raphson method along with the line-search method was used to solve the nonlinear set of equations. The fracture strain
used to define the tensile function is defined as below (Eq. 3):

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Fig. 11. (a) Cracking pattern, and (b) Strain contours along the length of the beams and cracks’ locations in UHPFRC beam specimens obtained by
the MT-DIC method (from left to right: (from left to right: RC1MS1-C1MS1-H1MS1-RC1PP1-C1PP1-H1PP1-RC0.67MS0.67PP0.67-
C0.67MS0.67PP0.67-H0.67MS0.67PP0.67).

w
ε= (3)
Lt

where ε is the fracture strain; w is the crack width and Lt is the characteristic length defined in Fig. 6 along with the post-cracking
tensile function. The methodology to simulate the behavior of FRC is as follows:

1. Fracture strain and the tensile stress corresponding to the first crack are defined as the x and y values of the initial tensile function,
respectively based on experimental results and/or the experience of the user.
2. Analysis is performed with analogies between the experimental and numerical results in subsequent.
3. If the case is the negligible difference between the results, the analysis is complete. Unless otherwise is the case, the fracture strain
should be recalculated from crack widths obtained from the analyses at distinct deflection values where the difference is
considerable according to Eq. (3). Based on the new fracture strain, the initial tensile function should be modified and the stress
values should be multiplied to the ratio of experimental-to-numerical results,

It should be emphasized that this process is iterative and the accuracy of the tensile function and its concomitant results are reliant
on the number of trial-and-errors and the accuracy required by the user. It should also be noted that, the tensile stress-strain behavior
of UHPFRC up to the peak load (ascending branch) was assumed linear in ATENA [20].

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Fig. 11. (continued).

Table 6
Regression parameters for load-deflection curves of beams.
ID Parameters Value R2 Adj. R2

RC1MS1–100 × 100 × 500 a (Std.) 3.11525 0.95065 0.9504

b (Std.) 0.65123
c (Std.) -0.45878
d (Std.) 3.34476

5. Results and discussions

5.1. Compression and modulus of elasticity test results

According to Table 4, hybrid micro and macro steel fibers showed the best performance in compressive strength gain and modulus
of elasticity (numbers following the specimen ID denote the fiber content by volume). Replacing MS fibers with PP fibers led to a
decrease of 11–18 % in the compressive strength while the corresponding range for the modulus of elasticity was between 5 % and 8 %.
Differences between the compressive strength binary steel composites and their ternary counterparts were negligible.

5.2. Direct tension results

Results for direct tension tests show a linear ascending trend followed by a ductile post-peak descending branch irrespective of the
fiber type as well as the binary or ternary combination of fibers (Fig. 7). Specimen RC1MS1 exhibited the highest tensile strength of
13.13 MPa followed by 12.24 MPa and 11.76 MPa for specimens C1MS1 and H1MS1, respectively. Replacing the high-strength MS
fiber with PP fibers saw a noticeable reduction of at least 50 %. Accordingly, the hybrid combination of steel fibers outperformed their
ternary combinations with PP fibers such that by at least 18 % for the C1MS1 fiber. It is hypothesized that adding PP fibers to the mix
has reduced the workability, and therefore, the tensile strength of the specimens. Nonetheless, ternary combinations of fibers

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Fig. 12. Comparison of experimental and regression-based curves for a sample specimen.

outperformed hybrid combinations of macro and PP fibers by 60 %. Both hybrid and ternary combinations of fibers underwent larger
displacement values in comparison to the hybrid combination of macro and PP fibers.
Furthermore, comparing Fig. 8(a) and (b), it can be observed that the MT-DIC method is capable of capturing the location of the
main crack as well as enabling us to plot axial strain contours over the investigated area. It can be seen that failure is characterized by a
single main crack rather than the favorable multi-cracking type. This phenomenon was expected since the overall ratio of fibers,
especially in hybrid combination of fibers is below 2 % which is the lower limit for multi-cracking behavior in fiber-reinforced
cementitious composites.

5.2.1. Nonlinear regression (load-displacement curves)

To quantify direct tensile response, nonlinear regression analyses were carried out on stress-strain curves of dog-bone specimens
with a 95 % confidence interval. For similarity and brevity, only the results for RC1MS1 specimen was presented. The overall trend of
the fitting curves has been obtained using Eq. (4):
a + bx
y= (4)
1 + cx + dx2

where a, b, c, d are fitting parameters, x corresponds to strain values and y correspond to stress values, both of which normalized with
respect to the peak deflection and peak load values, respectively. Regression parameters given in Table 5 show that estimation is in
good correlation with the experimental result with main deviations from the experimental results in the post-peak region, the un­
derlying reason of which, can be ascribed to the nonlinear behavior of concrete after cracking and different shapes and properties of
fibers, which makes capturing their behavior a challenging task. Fitting curve is given in Fig. 9. It should be emphasized that, from a
statistical point of view, a large number of specimens should be tested to reach an acceptable regression-based equation and formulas
given herein were merely used as a rough estimation of experimental results in similar research. However, normalization of values
allows for comparison with similar research.

5.3. Bending test results

5.3.1. Load-deflection curves

Fig. 10 shows the load-deflection curves obtained from the numerical analysis, and MT-DIC. It can be clearly seen that there is a
good agreement between numerical analyses and MT-DIC. The results for the numerical analyses show a little bit of stiffer response.
This phenomenon is expected since conditions are idealistic when compared to experimental tests. The scatter between the results is
higher in the descending nonlinear post-peak branch as opposed to the quasi-linear ascending branch. This observation can be
attributed to the nonlinear nature of concrete after cracking and the geometry and type of the specimens which makes their numerical
simulation a difficult task.
Concerning the flexural strength, similar to direct tension tests, RC1MS1 specimen outperformed the others with a flexural strength
of 30.90 MPa followed by 27.55 MPa and 28.22 MPa for C1MS1 and H1MS1 specimens. This observation is not entirely consistent with
that of the tensile strength since specimen H1MS1 has outperformed C1MS1 specimen. Similar to the tensile test, substituting MS fibers
with PP fibers led to a reduction of at least 100 % in the tensile strength of specimens which can be attributed to the low strength of
polypropylene fibers and their negative contribution given the workability issues their inclusion causes.
Similar to the observation made for the direct tension tests, it is observed that MT-DIC has successfully captured the location of
main cracks in the beam which have formed within the two loading cells where the bending moment is maximum (Fig. 11).

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Fig. 13. Sensitivity analysis of specimens with regard to length, width, depth, and the overall size.

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Fig. 13. (continued).

5.3.2. Nonlinear regression analysis (load-deflection curves)

Similar to the methodology adopted in sub-Section 5.2.1., nonlinear regression analyses were performed on normalized load-
normalized deflection curves such that load-deflection values were normalized with respect to the peak load and its corresponding
deflection. Eq. (5) yielded the best results for the flexural specimens. Values of the fitting parameters and the respective normalized

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curve given in Table 6 and Fig. 12 reveal that the correlation between the experimental and numerical results is very high. Deviation of
the fitting curves from the experimental one especially in the post-peak descending branch is attributed to complexities that different
fibers with different geometries and contents introduce to the concrete. It is noteworthy that, due to similarity and brevity, only the
results for one specimen have been presented.

ax + bx2
y= (5)
1 + cx + dx2

5.4. Effect of dimensions on the load-deflection behavior

Sensitivity analyses with regard to length, width, depth, and overall size of the specimens were carried out in ATENA [20] as
presented in Fig. 13 (only the results for some specimens are shown for similarity and brevity). It is crystal clear that increasing span
length decreases the initial slope with the occurrence of deflection corresponding to the peak load larger at larger values. Increasing
width, depth and overall size of the beam leads to a stiffer initial slope, smaller deflections corresponding to the peak, higher load
capacities and higher energy absorption (defined as the area under the load-deflection curve).

6. Conclusions

Effects of binary and ternary combinations of micro, macro steel with PP fiber in overall ratios of 2 % were investigated in this
study. For this purpose, compressive, tensile and flexural tests were performed on the cast specimens and the results were further
validated with numerical simulations. Sensitivity analyses with regard to the length, width, depth, and length of the beams were
carried out to provide a better understanding of the governing parameters. Displacement and deflection values were obtained using a
DIC-based method known as MT-DIC. Based on the findings of this study, the salient points of the research are as follows:

1. Replacing MS fibers with PP fibers in binary combinations, led to a decrease of 17 % in the compressive strength. Modulus of
elasticity, in contrast, saw a negligible difference between various specimens.
2. Hybrid combination of micro and macro steel fibers exhibited the best performance in all the mechanical tests with a tensile
strength of 13 MPa and flexural strength of 31 MPa followed by specimens with ternary fibers and combinations of PP and macro
steel fibers.
3. A simple digital image correlation method known as the MT-DIC method was capable of recognizing the location of the main crack
as well as displacement and deflection values.
4. The inverse analysis adopted in this study successfully captured the flexural load-deflection curves of the specimens. Similarly, the
nonlinear regression-based model proved to be very efficient in capturing the load-displacement curves of dog-bones, and load-
deflection curves of beams.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to
influence the work reported in this paper.

Data availability

Data will be made available on request.

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