A Review on Engineered Cementitious Composite

A Review on Engineered Cementitious Composite

Author Name : Brati Basu, Partha Saha, Arpita Marik, Dr. Biman Mukherjee

ABSTRACT

As we all know concrete is the major construction material in construction industry, but the main problem with the conventional concrete is that it has low tensile strength, brittleness and heavy weight compared to its strength. To overcome these drawbacks of conventional concrete, new and unique concrete has been introduced named as Engineered Cementitious Composite or strain hardening cement-based composites or bendable concrete or flexible concrete.It is popularly known as Engineered Cementitious Composite (ECC).

ECC is ultra-ductile fiber reinforced cementitious composite, characterized by its high ductility and tight crack width control. Microfibers are added to the ECC to eliminate Coarse Aggregate and reinforcement and impart tensile strength in order to enhance flexibility. The microfibers of ECC acts as ligaments to bond with concrete more tightly. Strain capacity of ECC is the range of 3%-7% compared to 0.01% for ordinary concrete. In this paper tensile strength, compressive strength and flexural strength of ECC concrete are discussed by using different composite material.

ECC has some special quality such as self healing, lightweight, ductility, cost effectiveness, energy harvesting. Due to its unique characteristics, it has numerous applications in buildings and bridge decks and many more structures in several cities of Japan, Korea, USA etc. are being done and also used in repair and rehabilitation projects.

KEYWORDS: Engineered Cementitious Composite (ECC), Bendable Concrete, Flexural Strength, Compressive Strength, Self-Healing, Microfibers, Microcracks