Engineered Cementitious Concrete Project Preparation

This paper discusses the preparation of engineered cementitious concrete projects, including literature review, test results evaluation, and design structures for earthquake loading. It covers various aspects such as long-term durability, fly ash composition, low drying shrinkage, curing temperature influence, and ECC reinforced with poly vinyl alcohol for thin-bonded pavements.

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ENGINEERED CEMENTITIOUS CONCRETE PROJECT PREPARATION
By (Student’s name)
Professor’s Name
Course
City
Submission Date

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Abstract
Drifting from the conventional reinforced concrete, ECC is becoming popular in construction
sites due to its superior mechanical properties. This paper goes through various pieces of
literature, reviewing their contents before evaluating their test results. Additionally, the evaluated
mechanical properties are used in developing better performing ECC design mixes and tests
methods that will help in the project’s design structures enduring earthquake loading.

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1. Introduction
The most common materials in construction both locally and internationally are concrete. There
is a type of concrete that is relatively new known as engineered cementitious composites (ECC).
This type of concrete consist of a mix of cement, fine sand, water, chemical admixtures and
fibres reinforced with high-performance fibre. This fibre is made up of polyvinyl alcohol fibres
(PVA). Engineered cementitious composites work the same way as concrete when compressed
however, ECC consists of superior tensile elements (Jang et al. 2019).
This article is a detailed literature review addressing crucial ECC aspects. This includes
reviewing every aspect in respect to ECC, testing and mixture designs of the materials. The
reviewed literature is thereby evaluated and concluded to create specifications for designing,
finishing and placing of ECC that endure earthquake loading (Arulmurugan 2018).
2. Literature Review
This part outlines a summarized compiled data obtained from a comprehensively reviewed
literature on mixture compositions, mixture designs, and research studies available as well as the
hardened and fresh features of ECC.
2.1. Long-term ECC durable performance
Yin et al. (2018) studied ECC's long-lasting durability in relation to accelerated weathering
exposure, skid resistance, freeze-thaw exposure, longevity tensile strain capacity and fatigue
loading. The aim is to determine ECC's resistance to the environmental impacts for many years.
The table below illustrates the summarized research findings (Liu et al. 2019; Reddy & Ravitheja
2019).

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Properties Findings
Accelerated
weathering
 Tensile strain capacity dropped due to the changes in the matrix or
fibre interface elements with time.
 ECC’s tensile strain reduced to 2.75% from 4.5% after exposure to
accelerated weathering for 26 weeks equivalent to 70 years of
exposure.
Freeze-thaw
resistance
 Concrete samples could not withstand 300 freeze-thaw cycles.
 After 300 cycles of freeze-thaw, the ECC samples attained a 3 %
tensile strain
Skid resistance  Skid resistance studies reveal all the four tested finishing procedures
enabled the ECC samples to gain enough AWI skid resistance.
 The proposed method of finishing was transverse tined groves that
produced AWI tested value of 2.3.
Durable tensile
strain
 An increase in the age of the sample decreased the ECC’s capacity
for tensile strain.
 A mixture of ECC with a strain of 5% in days obtained a strain of 3%
in 180 days.
 The expected constant capacity of tensile strain is 3% after 180 days.
Flexural
Fatigue
 An overlay of ECC showed superior performance than the concrete
overlay.
 ECC overlay exhibited very high deformations, multiple loading
capacity and fatigued life of higher magnitudes than the tested
concrete overlay.
 An ECC overlay proved to undergo no reflective fractures.
Table 1: summarized findings long-lasting durability research.

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2.2. ECC with large quantities of Fly Ash
Yu et al. (2018) studied the features of ECC laboratory samples with huge volumes of fly ash.
The aim was to develop a mixture of ECC that is viable economically but still maintained its
desired tensile strain and tensile strength capacity the standard ECC mixtures typically showed.
The table contains the summarized findings of the study above (Pakravan et al. 2018; Joseph &
Anand 2018):
Properties Findings
Initial
fracture
Tensile
Strength
 An increase in the fly ash contents reduced the strength of first cracks.
Supreme strengths were attained at a 0.1 fly ash/cement ratio.
 Ash at the bottom had very low strengths whereas amalgamation of fine
ash, bottom, and type F fly ash had superior strengths of 570 psi or 3.92
MPa.
The ultimate
capacity of
Tensile
Strain
 The ultimate capacity of tensile strength increased while the contents of
fly ash increased. Superior capacities of tensile strain were attained 1.5
fly ash/cement ration.
 Ash at the bottom had very low capacities of tensile strengths but a
combination of fine fly ash, bottom ash and type F fly ash had supreme
strains of 4.29%.
The ultimate
capacity of
tensile
strength
 There was an ultimate decrease in tensile strengths while the contents of
fly ash increased. Supreme strength was attained at 0.2 fly ash to
cement ratio.
 Ash at the bottom had very low strengths while a combination of fine
ash, bottom ash and type F fly ash had very high strengths of 4.77 MPa
(700 psi).
Compressive
Strength
 Compressive strength reduced while the contents of fly ash increased.
ECC mixtures containing GI through ECC G4 had 35 MPa (5 ksi)
compressive strengths at 28 days.

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Table 2: summarized evaluated study of high quantity fly ash.
2.3. Low Drying Shrinkage ECC feature
Wang et al. (2018) investigated the drying shrinkage strain characteristic of normal laboratory
engineered cementitious composites. The objective was to create a mixture of ECC with minimal
drying shrinkage strain as well with high performance when exposed to the uniaxial tensile
experiment. The table below shows summarized findings from the above study (Jang et al. 2019;
Wang et al. 2019):
Propertie
s
Findings
Drying
Shrinkage
 ECC with low shrinkage had a drying shrinkage strain to a maximum of
2420 10-6.
 Very high ratios of W/C led to very high dry shrinkage strain.
 Very high ratios of S/C leads to very low dry shrinkage strain.
Tensile
Strain
Capacity
 Very high ratios of S/C leads to very low ultimate strain and initial cracks
at retained ratios of W/C notwithstanding time.
 Very high ratios of W/C leads to very high ultimate strains and initial
cracks notwithstanding time.
 Mixture 7 had 2.6% tensile strains at 28 days.
Tensile
strength
 The ratios W/C have very low impacts on the ultimate tensile strength and
initial cracks.
 Very high ratios of S/C led to very high initial crack strengths at retained
ratios of W/C notwithstanding time.
 Very low ratios of S/C lead to very high ultimate strengths at maintained
ratios of W/C after 28 days.
 Mixture 7 had 4.3 MPa (628 psi) tensile strengths.
Drying
Shrinkage
 ECC containing type 1 cement had dry shrinkage fractures that were

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fracture
pattern
visible.
 The composite cement did not have any cracks that were visible.
Table 3: summarized findings obtained from low drying shrinkage research.
2.4. Influence of curing temperature on ECC flexural performance
Du et al. (2018) studied how curing durations and various curing temperatures influenced the
ECC’s flexural performance. ECC samples with measurements of 320 × 40 × 12 mm and
engineered cementitious composites specimens were then cured at temperature four were finally
tested with four-point loading to determine the flexural performance. The table below illustrates
the summarized results from the research (de Oliveira et al. 2018; Sui et al. 2018):
Properties Findings
Initial crack
strength
 An increase in temperatures caused an increase in the initial crack
strength for all the curing times.
 At 400 C (1040 F) and 200 C curing durations increase, led to an increase
in Initial crack strength.
 There were no such changes observed at 800 and 600
Beam
verticle
deflection
 Increase in temperature caused the reduction in verticle deflections for
each curing durations.
 Verticle deflections were relatively the same notwithstanding the curing
durations for each of the four curing temperatures. Highest deflections
happened in 7 days.
Resultant
tensile
strength
 An increase in temperature caused an increase in the resultant strengths
for each curing durations.
 An increase in curing durations caused an increase in strengths for each
of the four curing temperatures.

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Table 4: a summarized illustration of results from the impacts of curing temperatures evaluated
research.
2.5. Study of ECC reinforced with Poly Vinyl Alcohol for an overlay thin-
bonded pavements
Arulmurugan (2018) studied how a thin-bonded ECC overlay can be used. The goal was to find
whether a mixture of engineered cementitious composites with coarse aggregates can show
similar mechanical features as the real mixture of engineered cementitious composites without
coarse aggregates. The large volumes of coarse aggregates in these design mixtures are not
normal for engineered cementitious composite mixtures. The table below illustrates summarized
findings from designed ECC overlay for thin-bonded pavements (Hajj et al. 2016; Zhang et al.
2017):
Properties Findings
Compressive
strength
 An increase in fibre composition caused a reduction in compressive
strengths. Maximum strengths were obtained at fibre compositions of
16Ibs/cy with 48.2 MPa values in 28 days.
 An increase in the sample’s age caused an increase in compressive
strengths.
Flexural
strengths
 An increase in fibre composition caused a reduction in flexural
strengths. Maximum strength was attained at 16Ibs/cy fibre
composition at 5 days with values of 6.9 MPa.
 An increase in the sample’s age caused an increase in flexural strengths.
slump  Slumps will increase than reduce while fibre composition increases.
Maximum slumps were attained 18Ibs/cy and a value of 50 mm.
Composition
of air
 The composition of air will increase than reduce with increase in fibre
composition. Maximum air composition was attained at 18Ibs/cy fibre
composition with a value of 9.7%.

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Bond
strength
 Engineered cementitious composites or concrete strength had
measurements of 8.3 MPa.
Freeze-thaw
resistance
 An increase in fibre composition caused a slight reduction in freeze-
thaw resistance.
 At 16Ibs/cy fibre composition, the durability factor of freeze-thaw was
at 89.3.
Beam
deflection or
Ductile
features
 An increase in fibre composition causes an increase in beam
deflections. Maximum beam deflections of 0.15 mm were attained at
22Ibs/yd fibre composition.
Finishing
properties
 Drag brooms can sufficiently be used in finishing engineered
cementitious composites surfaces.
Table 5: a summarized illustration of findings from the designed ECC overlay for thin-bonded
pavements.
3. Evaluation
3.1. Considered Factors in ECC Mix Designs
One important variable discovered is the water-to-cement ratio of materials. A number of
investigations identified an ideal W/CM ratio which ranges 0.25±0.05. When an ECC mix design
has its W/CM ratio ranging outside the ideal ratio its strain will harden, however, there will be a
reduced tensile strain and tensile strengths. In cases ranging from lower W/CM ratios, there will
be a reduction in the amount of drying shrinkage cracking while tensile strains and tensile
strengths become higher (de Oliveira et al. 2018).
Making ECC one viable material for construction would be achieved by including fly ash that
minimizes the concrete unit cost. The fly ash-to-cement ratio may be chosen to range from 0.11

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to 2.8, however, this ratio typically is from 0.8 to 1.2. The FA/C ratios that are higher eventually
decrease the quantity of required cement in producing ECC, however, the ratios will also
decrease the resistance of the material to scaling when exposed to de-icing salt solutions (Reddy
& Ravitheja 2019).
The sand-to-cement ratio is also an important factor that reduces the ECC unit cost. The S/C
ratio may exist between 0.11 and 2.2, however, the most common ratios exist from 0.8 to 1.2.
Best tensile strengths could be developed with 1.0 S/C ratio. For higher tensile strain capacity,
one may opt to use a 0.8 to 1.0 S/C ratio. When the ECC has an S/C ratio that is more than 1.2 or
less than 0.8, the tensile strain and tensile strengths reduce (Arulmurugan 2018).
In ECC, the quantity of fibre used was almost constant in most of the reviewed studies. Most of
the reviewed studies had a 2% fibre volume in their ECC experiments. 1.7% as well as 2.5%
fibre contents were rationed and investigated and trends drew the fact that higher contents of
fibre would lead to ECC with greater tensile strains and strengths. However, when the fibre
contents increase the ECC unit cost (Hajj et al. 2016).
3.2. Expected Durability and Mechanical Properties of ECC
In ECC there exist three major mechanical properties. These include; tensile strain, tensile
strength and compressive strength. A tensile strength exists from 4.3 MPa to 5.9MPa once the
ECC is through with 28-day curing. After a long time, the capacity of the tensile strain will shift
between 2 to 3%. The results from various tests showed a drop in the capacity of tensile strain
over time. Additionally, it is an expectation that the capacity of tensile strain with a 3% value
will maintain over the developed ECC's lifetime. The ECC had the compressive strengths
ranging between 45 MPa and 64MPa in 28 days. In cases of early ECC strength determination,

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the compressive strengths of 20.7 MPa were attained in short durations after placement, as short
as 3 hours (Liu et al. 2019).
ECC durability is also very important like mechanical properties. In comparison, conventional
samples of concrete were overwhelmed with numerous freeze-thaw cycles, however, ECC had
the ability to endure various free-thaw cycles regardless of being exposed to de-icing salts.
Furthermore, ECC had the capability of self-healing once exposed to vast drying and wetting
cycles (Wang et al. 2018).
3.3. How the project adds/uses the reviewed literature
Based on the reviewed literature, the project looks to use an average ECC mechanical properties
as the typical value target in designing the ECC mixes used in the project. In achieving this, the
document recommends selecting typical proportions of mixes identified in the reviewed
literature. In case the developed ECC mixes are not meeting the target minimum tensile strain,
tensile strength and compressive strength values, the ECC mix design proportions will have to be
tweaked accordingly (Wang et al. 2019). Various probable tests for hardened and fresh ECC
properties from the reviewed literature are proposed for use to make the project come up with
validated conclusive ECC test results. Moreover, the large number of tests ensure that the chosen
ECC mix design for the project will be most successful (Reddy & Ravitheja 2019).
4. Conclusion
ECC production has been validated from the literature reviewed. This literature showed that
there exist numerous mix sequences and designs in producing desirable ECC mixes that meet
specific properties. ECC has experimented extensively in multiple studies for its purpose as a
material used in construction. Looking at the ECC test results, ECC outperforms conventional

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reinforced concrete. Hence, its proposal in a project developing structures enduring earthquake
loadings (Hajj et al. 2016).

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