BENDING PERFORMANCE OF DUCTILE FIBER REINFORCED CEMENTITIOUS COMPOSITE

The behavior of PVA fiber reinforced engineered cementitious composite (PVA-ECC) under bending load is investigated through experiments. The test results show that the water to cementitious material ratio (W/C) has a significant influence on the bending performance of PVA-ECC. The bending strength increases with the reduction of W/C while the ductility of the beam decreases. As the W/C varies from 0.35 to 0.25, both bending strength and ductility have a sudden change. When W/C is higher than 0.35, the influence of W/C on the bending strength and the ductility is smaller than that when W/C is lower than 0.35. The bending strength and ductility of PVA-ECC are greatly improved compared with the normal concrete. The abrupt drop of the load-displacement curve after ultimate load of concrete in bending is eliminated and replaced by a slowly decreasing stage in PVA-ECC.