De-icing salt scaling resistance of mechanically loaded engineered cementitious composites

Abstract

This paper reports the durability performance of non-air-entrained Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC) with different fly ash content when subjected to mechanical loading and freezing and thawing cycles in the presence of de-icing salt. ECC is a newly developed high performance fiber reinforced cementitious composite with substantial benefit in both high ductility in excess of 3% under uniaxial tensile loading and improved durability due to intrinsically tight crack width. After 50 freezing and thawing cycles in the presence of de-icing salt, the surface condition visual rating and total mass of the scaling residue of ECC, even those with high volume fly ash content, remain within acceptable limits according to the ASTM C 672. This level of durability holds true even for specimens pre-loaded to cracking at high deformation level. Non-air-entrained mortar specimens with and without fly ash were also used as reference specimens. As expected, these mortar prisms under identical testing conditions deteriorated severely. Pre-loaded and virgin (no pre-loading) ECC coupon specimens were also exposed to freezing and thawing cycles in the presence of de-icing salts for 25 and 50 cycles to determine their residual tensile behavior. The reloaded specimens showed negligible loss of ductility, but retained the multiple micro-cracking behavior and tensile strain capacity of more than 3%. It is also discovered that multiple micro-cracks due to mechanical loading will heal sufficiently under freezing and thawing cycles in the presence of salt solutions to restore nearly the original stiffness. These results confirmed that ECC, both virgin and micro-cracked, remain durable despite exposure to freezing and thawing cycles in the presence of de-icing salts.