Residual Impact Performance of ECC Subjected to Sub-High Temperatures

Despite the fact that the mechanical properties of Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC) after high-temperature exposure are well investigated in the literature, the repeated impact response of ECC is not yet explored. Aiming to evaluate the residual impact response of ECC subjected to sub-high temperatures under repeated drop weight blows, the ACI 544-2R repeated impact test was utilized in this study. Disk impact specimens (150 mm diameter and 64 mm thickness) were prepared from the M45 ECC mixture but using polypropylene fibers, while similar 100 mm cube specimens and 100 x 100 x 400 mm prism specimens were used to evaluate the compressive and flexural strengths. The specimens were all cast, cured, heated, cooled, and tested under the same conditions and at the same age. The specimens were subjected to three temperatures of 100, 200 and 300 degrees C, while a group of specimens was tested without heating as a reference group. The test results showed that heating to 100 and 200 degrees C did not affect the impact resistance noticeably, where the retained cracking and failure impact numbers and ductility were higher or slightly lower than those of unheated specimens. On the other hand, exposure to 300 degrees C led to a serious deterioration in the impact resistance and ductility. The retained failure impact numbers after exposure to 100, 200, and 300 degrees C were 313, 257, and 45, respectively, while that of the reference specimens was 259. The results also revealed that the impact resistance at this range of temperature showed a degree of dependency on the compressive strength behavior with temperature.