Abstract
ABSTRACT Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC) are considered a promising alternative for the construction of durable pavements. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of plasticity and flexural fatigue behaviour of ECC on pavement performance. A low-cost ECC using low fibre content (1.5% volume fraction), locally-available river sand and a high level of cement replacement with class F fly ash (75% by weight) was investigated. The ECC demonstrated a pseudo-strain-hardening (PSH) behaviour at all curing ages. Furthermore, as curing progressed, the tensile and flexural strengths increased; yet, ductility decreased. The flexural fatigue performance of the ECC was significantly superior to that of regular concrete. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) was integrated with flexural fatigue experimental results to establish a thickness vs. cycles to failure (T-N) relationship. In developing the T-N relation, the effect of ECC plasticity was accounted for by proposing a stress equivalency function to convert plastic stress into an equivalent linear elastic stress. From the T-N curves, it was determined that the original ECC T-N curve (without implementing the stress equivalency function) greatly overestimated the numbers of the cycle to failure for thicknesses below ~60 mm as this curve starts exhibiting an asymptotic behaviour with respect to N.
Published Version
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