Creep and shrinkage of high-performance fiber-reinforced cementitious composites

A class of high-performance fiber-reinforced cementitious composites (HPFRCC), referred to as engineered cementitious composites (ECC), was studied for its time-dependent properties. The material exhibits a pseudo strain-hardening response with multiple fine cracking in uniaxial tension. A series of experiments on ECC specimens, as well as similar specimens without fibers, was conducted to provide information about shrinkage, basic creep, drying creep, and creep recovery of the material. Comparisons with established predictive models for creep and shrinkage of concrete were made. It was found that the ECC material developed greater creep strains than a similar cementitious mixture without fiber reinforcement. Surface cracking was observed to effect shrinkage strain measurements and estimates of material shrinkage behavior Existing predictive models, while not developed for such materials, can give a reasonable estimate of creep and shrinkage behavior.