Seawater sea-sand Engineered Cementitious Composites (SS-ECC) for marine and coastal applications

• Published in: Composites communications Vol. 20; p. 100353
• Main Authors: Huang, Bo-Tao, Yu, Jing, Wu, Jia-Qi, Dai, Jian-Guo, Leung, Christopher KY
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.08.2020
• Subjects: Engineered cementitious composite; Marine and coastal applications; Mechanical property; Sea-sand; Seawater; Strain-hardening cementitious composite; Strain-hardening cementitious composite; Engineered cementitious composite; Mechanical property; Sea-sand; Seawater; Marine and coastal applications
• ISSN: 2452-2139; 2452-2139
• DOI: 10.1016/j.coco.2020.04.019

Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC) have great potential in marine and coastal applications to extend the service life of infrastructures. In this study, the feasibility of using seawater and sea-sand to produce both normal- and high-strength ECC was explored. Some fundamental properties of seawater sea-sand ECC (SS-ECC) were evaluated, including setting time, 28-day compressive strength, tensile performance, and crack pattern under tension. Normal-strength SS-ECC with compressive strength of 58 MPa, tensile strength of 5 MPa and tensile strain capacity of 4%, as well as high-strength SS-ECC with compressive strength of 137 MPa, tensile strength of 8 MPa and tensile strain capacity of 5% were produced. Using seawater and sea-sand slightly increased the compressive strength (12%), and marginally decreased the tensile strength (6%) and tensile strain capacity (18%) of normal-strength ECC, while it has almost no effects on these properties of high-strength ECC. Additionally, using seawater and sea-sand decreased the crack width of normal-strength ECC, but increased that of high-strength ECC. These findings provide insights into future design and applications of ECC in high-performance marine and coastal infrastructures. •Normal-and high-strength SS-ECC achieved compressive strength of 58 MPa and 137 MPa, respectively.•Normal-strength SS-ECC achieved tensile strength of 5 MPa and tensile strain capacity of 4%.•High-strength SS-ECC achieved tensile strength of 8 MPa and tensile strain capacity of 5%.•Using SS enhanced compressive strength, but slightly deteriorated tensile properties of normal-strength ECC.•Using SS has almost no effects on mechanical properties of high-strength ECC.