A micromechanical crack bridging model considering the slip-softening interface with the residual shear stress for SFRCC

Characterizing the bond properties of the steel fiber/matrix interface plays an important role in describing the crack bridging effect in steel fiber-reinforced cementitious composites (SFRCC). In this paper, a new interface law considering the residual shear stress is proposed to interpret the slip-softening effects of the steel fiber/matrix interface. Accordingly, a micromechanical crack bridging model for SFRCC is formulated by combining the single steel fiber pullout model with the image analysis-based fiber orientation distribution. Comparisons with the experimental data and the existing models show that the proposed model can well predict SFRCC’s tensile softening behavior. Meanwhile, the decrease rate of the bridging stress, the composite fracture energy, the peak bridging stress and the corresponding peak crack opening displacement (COD) are employed to quantitatively evaluate the crack bridging curves. Finally, the effects of the residual shear stress ratio, the interfacial softening coefficient and the fiber orientation distribution on the crack bridging relation are discussed with the proposed framework.