Abstract
Engineered cementitious composites (ECC) show the distinguished characteristics of high post-cracking resistance and ductility. High-strength stainless steel wire rope (HSSSWR) has been successfully used for restoring or strengthening of existing structures. By combining the advantages of these two materials, a new composite system formed by embedding HSSSWR into ECC was proposed and expected to be a promising engineering material for repair or strengthening of structures. To investigate the tensile failure mechanism and mechanical properties of HSSSWR-reinforced ECC, an experimental study on 27 HSSSWR-reinforced ECC plates was conducted considering the effects of the reinforcement ratio of longitudinal HSSSWRs, formula of ECC and width of the plate. Test results revealed that HSSSWR-reinforced ECC exhibit superior post-cracking resistance, deformation capacity and crack-width control capacity. Increasing the reinforcement ratio of longitudinal HSSSWRs can effectively enhance the tensile strength, crack-width control capacity, deformation capacity and tensile toughness of HSSSWR-reinforced ECC. Adding thickener in ECC can significantly improve the crack-width control capacity and deformation capacity of HSSSWR-reinforced ECC due to enhancing uniform distribution of polyvinyl alcohol fibers, but would slightly reduce the cracking stress and maximum tensile stress by bringing small bubbles in the matrix. The tensile properties of HSSSWR-reinforced ECC plates are almost not affected by varying the plate width. Besides, a tensile constitutive model was developed for charactering the stress–strain relationship of HSSSWR-reinforced ECC in tension. Based on mechanical theories and failure characteristics of HSSSWR-reinforced ECC, the model parameters were determined, and calculation equations of cracking stress and tensile strength were proposed. The accuracy of the developed model and calculation equations was verified by test results.
Highlights
Engineered cementitious composites (ECC) show the distinguished characteristics of high post-cracking resistance and ductility
Al-Gemeel et al (Al-Gemeel et al, 2019) investigated the tensile performance of ringshape specimens reinforced with basalt fiber-reinforced polymer (BFRP) grids and ECC under apparent hoop tensile loading, and found that compared with ECC without BFRP grids and conventional mortar reinforced by BFRP grids, the first crack load, peak load and energy absorption ability of BFRP grid-reinforced ECC were improved more notably
When the peak load was reached, a few small cracks connected to form a main crack on the monitored zone of the specimen, accompanied by clear sounds of pulling out or fracture of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fibers, and one longitudinal High-strength stainless steel wire rope (HSSSWR) ruptured at the main crack
Summary
Engineered cementitious composites (ECC) show the distinguished characteristics of high post-cracking resistance and ductility. Existing studies (AlGemeel et al, 2019; Fischer & Li, 2002b; Hossain, 2018; Hu et al, 2019; Kunieda et al, 2010; Li & Xiong, 2019; Zheng et al, 2016; Zhu et al, 2018) show that ECC reinforced by steel or FRP reinforcements were feasible reinforcement materials for strengthening or rehabilitation of concrete structures and can effectively improve ductility, anti-cracking ability and bearing capacity of RC structures, some deficiencies of these strengthening materials remained. Combining the advantages of both HSSSWR and ECC, a new composite system, namely HSSSWR-reinforced ECC, which is formed by embedding HSSSWR into ECC, was proposed, and the flexural strengthening method with HSSSWR-reinforced ECC was verified to result in a more significant increase in deformation capacity, crack-width control capacity, stiffness, cracking strengths and ultimate strengths of RC beams, compared with strengthening method by using HSSSWR and polymer mortar (Yuan et al, 2020). HSSSWR-reinforced ECC is expected to be a promising engineering material for repair or strengthening of structures
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