Tensile and fiber dispersion performance of ECC (engineered cementitious composites) produced with ground granulated blast furnace slag

An engineered cementitious composite (ECC) produced with ground granulated blast furnace slag was developed for the purpose of achieving moderately high composite strength while maintaining high ductility, represented by strain-hardening behavior in uniaxial tension. In the material development, single fiber pullout tests and matrix fracture tests were performed, followed by micromechanical analyses to properly select the range of mixture proportion. Subsequent direct tensile tests were employed to assess the strain-hardening behavior of the composite, which exhibited high ductility and strength with the addition of slag. High ductility is most likely due to enhanced workability and fiber dispersion performance which is attributed to the oxidized grain surface of slag, as verified by fiber dispersion tests. These results suggest that, within the limited slag dosage employed in the present study, the contribution of slag to fiber dispersion outweighs the side-effect of decreased potential for saturated multiple cracking, including a slight increase in matrix fracture toughness and fiber/matrix bond strength.