Evaluation of shrinkage induced cracking performance of low shrinkage engineered cementitious composite by ring tests

In this study, shrinkage induced cracking performance of low shrinkage engineered cementitious composite (LSECC) and traditional ECC is evaluated comparatively by ring tests. The development of free shrinkage and interior humidity of LSECC and traditional ECC under plastic film sealed and drying conditions were experimentally measured. The anti-cracking performance of both materials under shrinkage load was examined with ring tests by measuring the compressive strain along circle direction in the steel ring and by observation on the ring specimen. The experimental results show that the shrinkage of LSECC is significantly reduced comparing with that of traditional ECC. Under the same restraint and environmental drying conditions, LSECC presents super anti-cracking performance that behaves as no visible cracks on the ring specimen can be observed. By contrast, there are number of fine cracks are observed on traditional ECC specimen. The mechanisms of super anti-cracking performance of LSECC are interpreted by shrinkage induced stress analyses with ECC-steel composite ring specimen.