Three-point bending beam is widely used in test of fracture properties for materials.However, a sharp crack can hardly be prepared for the specimen of quasi-brittle materials, alternatively it is reasonable to consider a U-shaped notch, then use stress concentration factor (SCF) to characterize the peak stress at the notch bottom. We studied the SCFs of the three-point bending beams with a U-shaped notch using finite element method, and the results show the variation of the SCF with changing notch depth and notch width, filling the existing vacancy in SCF handbooks. The SCF at the bottom of U-shaped notch of three-point bending beam is smaller than that of the counterpart pure bending beam, and the largest relative difference is -7.3%. We applied the results to determine the dimensionless maximum load bearing capacity and the corresponding deflection of the three-point bending beams, the effect of notch depth and notch width can be considered in a comprehensive way
