Tailoring ECC for Special Attributes: A Review

This article reviews the tailoring of engineered cementitious composites (ECC), a type of high performance fiber reinforced cementitious composites with a theoretical design basis, for special attributes or functions. The design basis, a set of analytic tools built on micromechanics, provides guidelines for tailoring of fiber, matrix, and fiber/matrix interfaces to attain tensile ductility in ECC. If conditions for controlled multiple cracking are disturbed by the need to introduce ingredients to attain a special attribute or function, micromechanics then serve as a systematic and rational means to efficiently recover composite tensile ductility. Three examples of ECCs with attributes of lightweight, high early strength, and self-healing functions, are used to illustrate these tailoring concepts. The fundamental approach, however, is broadly applicable to a wide variety of ECCs designed for targeted fresh and/or hardened characteristics required for specific applications.