An Experimental Study on the Influence of Ground Granulated Blast-Furnace Slag (GGBS) on Bending Strength of Green Engineered Cementitious Composites

Abstract

This paper provides an experimental study into the efficacy of Ground Granulated Blast-furnace Slag (GGBS) on green engineered cementitious composites (ECC). This study has used ECC made out of Portland cement, recycled concrete fines (RCF), GGBS, water, superplasticizer (SP) and polypropylene (PP) fibers. Thirty-six (36) mixtures of ECC with a water-cement ratio of 0.27 were assessed. Twenty-four (24) ECC mixtures comprising GGBS by differing sand to binder ratio (0.2 and 0.4) of various cement-to-GGBS combinations tested under compressive loading and twelve (12) other mixtures tested under bending after 7 and 28 days of curing period. The mechanical characteristics were evaluated on ECC cubes (50 mm × 50 mm × 50 mm) and ECC plates (300 mm × 75 mm × 12 mm) employing compression and flexural test machines, respectively. Experimental findings showed that the compressive strengths of the ECC incorporating GGBS tend to reduce with an expanding sand to binder ratio. ECC's flexural performance, with 70 per cent and 80 per cent of GGBS used as a partial replacement for cement, dropped considerably when sand content was increased. All green ECC plates exhibited flexural characteristics with a greater ductility compared to conventional concrete. This is due to the tendency of the plates to deform with enormous capacity after undergoing the first crack.