Mechanical Behavior of Fiber-Reinforced Engineered Cementitious Composites in Uniaxial Compression

Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fiber reinforced engineered cementitious composite (ECC) is a class of high performance cementitious composites with pseudo strain-hardening behavior and excellent crack control when subjected to uniaxial tension. However, the compressive behavior of ECC has not been well characterized in the literature. In this paper, uniaxial compression tests were carried out on ECC with five different mix proportions and compressive strength ranging from 35 to 60 MPa. Complete stress-strain curves were obtained. Based on the test results, the compressive parameters, such as the elastic modulus, engineering strain at the peak stress, the Poisson's ratio and the toughness index, were studied. A new constitutive model was proposed to express the pre- and postpeak mechanical behavior of ECC under uniaxial compression. The proposed model showed a good agreement with the experimental curves. The model proposed should be a valuable reference for the nonlinear analysis of ECC material in the part of structures under uniaxial compression.