Optimized Fresh and Hardened Properties of Strain Hardening Cementitious Composites: Effect of Mineral Admixtures, Cementitious Composition, Size, and Type of Aggregates

Abstract

The present paper thoroughly investigates the effects of mix design with various water-to-binder (W/B) ratios, types of mineral admixture and types and sizes of local sands on the tensile ductility of engineered cementitious composites (ECC). White and red dune sands—denoted W and D, whereas their sieved forms are denoted SW and SD, respectively—were collected from the Arabian Desert, the second largest on the earth. Fly ash (FA) and ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) were separately used as mineral admixtures in the production of ECC. The development of ductility in ECC mixtures incorporating FA was found to reduce with curing time, whereas it was found to increase with GGBFS. An ECC mixture containing 62% GGBFS with W/B ratio of 0.35 has delivered the best fresh and hardened properties with strain capacity of 4.2% and tensile strength of 5.2 MPa at 28 days. Water sorptivity of fully cracked dune sand–based ECC mixtures was lower than that given by normal concrete. It is concluded that dune sand–based ECC mixtures have provided comparable results to the reference silica sand–based ECC mixtures.