Serviceability behaviour of reinforced UHPFRC tensile elements: Assessment of the ratio between maximum and average crack widths

This study aimed to evaluate the maximum crack width formed under tensile stresses for two reinforced ultrahigh performance fibre-reinforced concrete (UHPFRC) types with different steel fibre volume contents, and to compare them to average values. The maximum crack width values can more than double the average ones based on the applied tensile strain. The difference between maximum and average crack widths should be considered for examining UHPFRC structures for the serviceability and durability design. This paper also introduces appropriate statistical procedures for developing fragility curves based on cracking data by assuming that they can be represented by Rice distribution functions.