An Economical Engineered Cementitious Composite (ECC) prepared with fine quarry sand and a nominal amount of PVA fibers

Abstract

The production of conventional engineered cementitious composites – ECC consumes low-volume and expensive ultrafine silica sand [UFSS] – maximum size 250 μm, which negatively affecting dry shrinkage, cost and practical application of ECC. This study develops an economical ECC featuring ordinary quarry sand [QS] with a lower fineness modulus – FM = 2.2 and a maximum particle size of 2350 μm. The quarry sand particle size was ten times greater, and the price was 30 times lower than UFSS. The experimental finding was shown that ECC prepared with QS exhibited the strain hardening phenomenon, with multiple cracks produced, before failure. The performance of QS was also checked under different temperature regimes, and a minor decrease in the mass density and compressive strength was observed, up to 200°C. After 200°C, a significant decrease in compressive strength was found, due to the melting of the PVA fibers.