Development of basalt fiber engineered cementitious composites and its mechanical properties

Fiber plays a key role in the mechanical properties of Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC), a new generation of fiber-reinforced concrete with excellent ductility and exceptional crack control capability. However, ECC loses its high ductility when exposed to fire, as the synthetic fibers typically used in ECC melt resulting in a loss of crack-bridging ability in elevated temperatures. In this study, the feasibility of using basalt fiber, an inorganic fiber with high-temperature resistance, to develop ECC is investigated experimentally. The results show that basalt fiber reinforced ECC (BF-ECC) exhibits a very unique strain-hardening and multiple-cracking behavior when compared with typical ECCs. The tensile stress-strain curve of BF-ECC is relatively smooth, with average crack width below 10 um and crack spacing less than 3 mm. The unique features of BF-ECC are interpreted based on the bridging behavior of basalt fibers. This work paves the way for further developing ECC with high-temperature resistance. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.