Tensile Properties of an Engineered Cementitious Composite Shotcrete Mix

Abstract

Results are presented for a series of laboratory tests that were undertaken to characterize the tensile properties of an engineered cementitious composite (ECC) mix, which is a mortar-based composite reinforced with synthetic fibers to provide tensile strain–hardening characteristics. Dogbone-, rectangular-, and circular-bar-shaped specimens were developed to determine the most suitable specimen geometry for uniaxial tensile testing (UTT), with the circular-bar specimens that were constructed by coring through sprayed ECC panels showing the best geometrical consistency, both within each specimen and between individual specimens. Fifty circular-bar specimens with a diameter of 16 mm and a length of 200 mm were tested under uniaxial tension to determine the characteristic tensile properties. Statistical distributions were used to define a 5% characteristic tensile yield strength of 1.82 MPa and a 10% tensile total strain of 0.08%. A material ductility factor of 4.0 was determined, and