Shear behavior of prestressed self-consolidating concrete bulb-tee beams

Self-consolidating concrete (SCC) is a highly flowable concrete that can spread into place under its own weight eliminating the need for vibration. SCC is proportioned to have a moderate viscosity and a low yield value to ensure a good formwork filling ability with minimum risk of defects. The mix design of self-consolidating concrete generally has a higher sand/coarse aggregate ratio, a higher amount of paste, and a lower water/cement ratio than that of normal concrete. As a result of these differences, some of the hardened properties of SCC can differ from those of normal concrete. Therefore, it is important to verify the mechanical properties of self-consolidating concrete before using it in practical applications.
The focus of this thesis will be strictly on the shear behavior of self-consolidating concrete. An in-depth analysis will be conducted to determine the stress at the points of crack initiation and high shear regions of a full-scale self-consolidating concrete beam under different loading conditions.