Effects of Gradation of Sand on the Mechanical Properties of Engineered Cementitious Composites

Four-point bending test was employed to investigate the effects of gradation of sand on the mechanical properties of Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC). The characteristics of ECC such as mid-span deflection, first cracking load, peak load and fracture toughness were obtained from the load-deflection curve. Effects of gradation of sand on fresh properties, compressive strength, flexural strength and drying shrinkage of ECC were also discussed in this paper. Test results shown that when the fineness modulus of sand in ECC was 1.0, the mid-span deflection and fracture toughness of ECC increased nearly 1.5 times and 2 times that of ECC with the sand fineness modulus of 2.97, respectively. With the sand getting finer, the more superplascitizer is needed and the crack width of ECC becomes smaller. The drying shrinkage of ECC with 2.97 and 1.0 fineness modulus of sand at 24 days was 8x10(4) and 15.6x10(-4), respectively.