To investigate the flexural behavior of self-consolidating hybrid fiber-reinforced concrete beams containing voids experimentally, six RC beams were tested, one solid without fiber and the others containing hooked-steel and macro-polypropylene fibers with a volume fraction of 1 and 0.5%, respectively. One of the five fibrous beams was solid; two contain a series of recycled plastic balls of diameters 110 and 120 mm, and another two contain a single longitudinal circular void created by PVC pipes of diameters 90 and 110 mm. The flexural behavior of the beams was assessed depending on the load-deflection curve, load-strain curve, ductility, toughness, stiffness, and crack patterns. The experimental outcomes showed that all the tested specimens (solid and voided) failed in a flexural mode. Hybrid fiber inclusion in the solid beam improved the load capacity at different loading levels, enhanced the stiffness by 38.3%, and increased the absorbed energy by 29.55%. The presence of voids in fibrous beams decreased the loads at cracking, yielding, and ultimate stages and enhanced the ductility. The ductility index, depending on deflection and energy methods, showed higher values for voided beams. The toughness of voided beams at the ultimate stage was enhanced by 1.1% to 28%. The voided beams exhibited lower values of stiffness, and their values decreased when the diameter of the voids increased. The outcomes also indicated that the incorporation of hybrid fiber significantly minimized the strain in steel reinforcing bars at the post-cracking stage, and the presence of voids minimized the reduction effect of steel strain according to void size and shape. Doi: 10.28991/CEJ-2025-011-04-08 Full Text: PDF
