Correlation between the viscoelastic properties and cracking potential of engineered cementitious composites

• Both microcracking and viscous shear theories are related to the deformability of ECC.
• Dimensional compatibility depends on tensile creep, elastic and shrinkage properties.
• Cracking potentials calculated by tensile creep and shrinkage tests reflected the real behavior.
• The type and amount of mineral admixture have significant effect on dimensional and mechanical properties.

Although Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC) offer a number of advantages over ordinary and fiber reinforced concrete in many respects, it is not cost-effective to build a whole structure with ECC, currently. Thus, ECC can potentially be used in repair systems or in bi-material systems which require it to be used together with a dimensionally stable material. High shrinkage, together with the restraining effect brings about cracking a critical phenomenon for ECC. In this study, along with the mechanical properties of ECC, viscoelastic properties like autogenous shrinkage, drying shrinkage and tensile creep which were used to calculate ECC’s cracking potential were studied. At the same time, the tendency of ECC mixtures to crack under restrained shrinkage conditions was also investigated using restrained shrinkage rings. It was concluded that creep, elastic properties, and shrinkage data should be together used to evaluate the dimensional compatibility.