Engineered Cementitious Composites using Chinese local ingredients: Material preparation and numerical investigation

Characterized with remarkable tensile ductility, toughness and multi-cracking behavior under tension, Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC) with Chinese local ingredients was developed in this paper, aiming to reduce the cost and to match a tensile strain capacity of 4%. Compression, tension and bending tests were carried out to determine the mechanical performance of this composite material. In addition, a numerical study to characterize the tensile and flexural behaviors of ECC specimens was conducted based on Lattice Discrete Particle Model (LDPM), which was recently developed to simulate quasi-brittle materials through a three dimensional assemblage of spherical particles. The effect of fiber reinforcement was investigated using the so-called LDPM-F which accounts for dispersed fibers at the meso-level. Plain mortar specimens without fibers were tested to calibrate the relevant LDPM parameters, while the LDPMF parameters related to the fiber-matrix interaction were identified by matching three-point bending test of ECC specimens. Results show that the validated ECC numerical model realistically predicts the tension response of dogbone specimens. In addition, typical multi-cracking phenomenon and strain-hardening behavior of ECC are successfully captured. Finally, the effect of fiber length on ECC tensile response was further studied, and the results suggest that the best tensile performance of ECC is obtained for 18-mm-long polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fiber reinforcement.

Automated summary

Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC) with remarkable mechanical properties were developed using Chinese local ingredients in this study. Mechanical performance of ECC was determined through experiments and numerical simulations. Results suggest that the best tensile performance of ECC is achieved with 18mm-long polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fiber reinforcement.