Hydro-abrasive resistance of engineered cementitious composites with PP and PVA fibers

The abrasion resistance of engineered cementitious composites (ECC) under the impact effect of water and waterborne erodent materials was experimentally investigated in this research. The abrasion tests were conducted using the water jet method with graded sand used as the erodent material and square ECC plate specimens with 200 mm side length and 50 mm thickness. Fixed basic ECC mixture was adopted for all test specimens but with variable fiber type and fiber content. PP and PVA fibers were used with four volumetric contents of 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0%, in addition to similar specimens without fiber. The variables that were investigated using the PP and PVA-based ECC were the fiber content and the age. The effect of the inclination of the specimens with respect to the water jet was investigated using PP-based ECC only. The test results showed that both types of fiber enhanced the abrasion resistance and decreased the abraded weight. The percentage abrasion resistance enhancement was higher for specimens incorporating higher fiber contents. The test results also showed that the abrasion weight loss decreased as the inclination of the exposed surface with horizon increased.