The influence of PVA content on the flexural behavior of engineered cementitious composite using local materials

Engineered cementitious composite (ECC) creates many potential civil engineering applications due to its outstanding ultimate tensile strain capacity (normally exceeding 2%) compared to conventional concrete and fiber reinforced concrete. The high tensile ductility of ECC is mainly influenced by fiber characteristics. In this study, the effect of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) content, i.e. from 2 to 6% by vol. of concrete, on the flexural behavior of ECC with a desired compressive strength of over 60 MPa, in which fly ash and silica fume were selected as supplementary cementitious materials. The experimental results show that the addition of PVA fiber gives little influence on compressive strength but can significantly affect the flexural behavior of ECC. Besides the optimum fiber content, the ratio between the ultimate and first crack strength of ECC was also evaluated.