An experimental study on mechanical properties of dry-mixed self-compacting concrete flexural members

Eight simply supported dry-mixed self-compacting concrete (DSCC) beams and two normal concrete beams were tested and flexural behaviors of the tested DSCC beams were studied besides failure characteristics. When water ratio and coarse aggregate ratio are appropriate, based on the experimental results DSCC beams also have the failure process, including elastic, cracking, yield and ultimate point in bending, and the average strain of normal section can meet the plane section assumption, then the bearing capacity was theoretically analyzed. The calculated results showed that the ultimate moment of DSCC beam, which can meet the security of engineering application, can be estimated by the suggested formula of present Code for Design of Concrete Structures (GB50010-2002), whereas the calculated cracking moment can not. The calculated cracking moment using elastic theory can be in good agreement with the experimental values.