Comparison of Compressive Strength and Flexural Capacity between Engineered Cementitious Composites (Bendable Concrete) and Conventional Concrete used in Bangladesh

The Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC) is made of the same ingredients as in regular concrete. The coarse aggregate is replaced with tiny Polyvinyl Alcohol fibres. This structure offers maximum flexibility and it is expected to cost less. It looks exactly like normal concrete, but under excessive strain, the ECC concrete allows, the specially coated network of fibre in the cement to slide within the cement, thus avoiding the inflexibility that causes brittleness and breakage. As this is a special type of concrete there are no defined codes for it, thus for these reasons, the parameters needed are to be obtained using trial and error method. During the composite preparation, sieve analysis was carried out. Composites were reinforced with Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) at the following ratios: 0 % (control), 0.5 %, 1 % and 1.5 %. The cylindrical specimens were subjected to compression and the slab specimens were subjected to flexural test using a Universal Testing Machine, while acquiring data with GOM Correlation Software. Test results reveal that fibre ratio 1% is most acceptable for attaining best compressive strength along with high flexural value. Even though 1% fibre content concrete in the flexural strength test showed 33% less strength of what 1.5% fibre content concrete gained, in the long run, for having the highest compressive strength value (almost 62% more than of 0% fibre content concrete and 15% more than of 1.5% fibre content concrete), 1% fibre content concrete is most suited for constructions.