Flexural Behaviour of Reinforced Polyvinyl Alcohol-Engineered Cementitious Composite Beams

A polyvinyl alcohol fibre reinforced-engineered cementitious composite (PVA-ECC) using local dune sand has been recently developed by the authors to achieve a tensile strain capability typically ranging from 0.5%-1.0% and at the same time to reduce cost. In this paper, the flexural behaviour of steel reinforced PVA-ECC (RECC) beams is investigated by conducting four-point bending tests. Traditional steel-reinforced concrete (RC) beams are also tested for comparison. It is found that the RECC beams achieve a 14.8% higher load-carrying capacity than the RC beams, and a significant increase of 103.6% in the mid-span deflection corresponding to the peak load is obtained.