Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC) considers a type of ultra-ductile cementitious composites
with fiber reinforcement. It is developed for applications for economic purpose in the construction industry.
ECC characterizes by strain hardening and multiple cracking. This paper experimentally investigates
the performance of ECC concrete beams reinforced with conventional reinforcement bars. Advanced
Polyvinyl Alcohol Engineered Cementitious Composite (PVA-ECC) fibers were selected in this purpose.
Twelve RC beams were poured and tested to study flexure behavior under four-point loading test. Two
different longitudinal reinforcement percentages, variable volume ratios of (PVA) and polypropylene
fibers (PP) were used. optimizing the usage of PVA material trails to put it in the lower layer of the section
at point of maximum tension with variable thicknesses was conducted. Initial flexure cracking load, ultimate
load, the ductility and the load-to-deflection relationship at various stages of loading were evaluated.
Experimental outcomes revealed that the enhancement in maximum capacity is more significant
in the case of using PVA rather than PP. The maximum load increases by 20% and 34% for 1.0% and
2.0% of PVA contents in total section respectively. The relative ductility factor increases by 30% and
45% for 1.0% and 2.0% of PVA content. Results also depicted that a reasonable considerable increasing
in the load capacity when used limited layer thickness of PVA concrete. Nonlinear Finite Element
Analysis (NLFEA) was conducted for the purpose of simulating the behavior of experimentally tested
beams, regarding crack behavior and load-deflection response. Reasonable agreement was achieved
between the experimental results and NLFEA results. |
