Engineered Cementitious Composite as an innovative durable material: A review

This paper studies recent research on the durability properties of engineered cementitious composites (ECC). As the necessity for economic infrastructure increases worldwide to cater for the rehabilitation of concrete structures that are damaged by continuous wear and environmental conditions. The reviewed subjects for ECC and normal concrete include to characterize mix design, to explain age at cracking, to evaluate possible crack width and determine the interfacial bond strength and strength capacity which can lead to assess the durability of ECC. Several key parameters such as compressive strength, tensile strength, tensile relaxation, elastic modulus, drying shrinkage, bond strength and crack resistance were considered. Conversely, ECC displays superior tensile strain capacity compared to normal concrete. Unlike ordinary cement-based materials, ECC strain hardens after the first cracking and behaves similarly to ductile metals. The microcracking behavior contributes towards crack width control, whereby even under large imposed deformation, crack sizes remain relatively small (less than 100 μm). Under favorable conditions, it has been experimentally reviewedthat ECC has self-healing capability. Hence, the crack control and self-healing properties may take advantage of the durability issues that most concrete structures face today. All these characteristics suggest that ECC can be potentially used on a larger scale in the field of repair.