Ministry of Higher Educa- ‫وزارة التعلیم العالی‬

tion
Higher Institute of Engi- ‫المعهد العالی للهندسۀ‬
neering ‫والتکنولوجیا بالزقازيق‬
& Technology in Zagazig

Flexural performance of
ECC layer composite RC
beams
Mahmoud Ahmed Mahmoud
119180
Mostafa El sayed Ibrahim
119200
Motassim Khaled Mohamed
119207
Mostafa Goda Fetouh
119201
Shady Ahmed Mohamed
119088
Hazem MohamedSupervisor
Abd Elazim
Dr Islam Abd El-fattah Mohamed
118106
Hassan Mohamed Ibrahim
Salama
118109
Mohamed Khaled Mohamed
2023-2024
 ABSTRACT

Concrete is the most widely utilized construction material due to its strength

, durability, and worldwide availability. Concrete's inherent weaknesses, in-

cluding low

tensile strength, brittleness, and poor crack resistance, have led to a focus

on

improving its mechanical performance. In recent decades, to address these

challenges, a kind of extremely ductile concrete (known as engineered ce-

mentitious composites,

abbreviated for ECC) was produced by introducing randomly distributed short

In this study the flexural performance of reinforced concrete beam with

ECC

layer with different depth were conducted using different ratio of

polypropylene fiber (PP). Five beams experimentally tested under four

points of loading.

One of the beams was casted using conventional concrete (NC), the oth-

ers were

mixed between the NC concrete and different thickness of ECC concrete

layer.
Organization of the project
book
Chapter 1 Introduction.

Chapter 2 Literature review.

Chapter 3 Experimental program.

Chapter 4 Test results and Discussion.

Chapter 5 Conclusions.
Chapter 1
Chapter 1
General

Concrete is the most widely utilized construction material due to its strength,
durability, and
worldwide availability. Concrete's inherent weaknesses, including low tensile
strength, brittleness, and poor crack resistance, have led to a focus on improving
its mechanical performance. In recent decades, to address these challenges, a
kind of extremely ductile concrete
(known as engineered cementitious composites, abbreviated for ECC) was
produced by introducing randomly distributed short polymer
fibers into a cement-based matrix. In this study the flexural performance of rein-
forced
concrete beam with ECC layer with different depth were conducted using different
ratio of
polypropylene fiber (PP). Five beams experimentally tested under four points of
loading. One of the beams was casted using conventional concrete (NC) , the oth-
Objectives
The significant objectives are studying the following effects experimentally
The effect of the thickness of ECC layer on the performance of the beams
The effect of using a different type of PP fiber ratio on the flexural capacity

Methodology
The research program is divided into the following tasks:
1. An intensive literature review on the previous researches concerning different types fiber on concrete and
the flexural performance of ECC composite beams.
2. The behavior of ECC layer composite beam was investigated throughout an experimental test
3. A parametric study will be performed using the developed using experimental test only.
4. Finally, the most important conclusions and recommendations will be outlined.
Organization of the project book
The work presented in this study is divided into five chapters. The first chap-

ter provides an introduction to this study, including its objectives and

methodology. The second

chapter is a literature review on the types of fiber in concrete concerning on

the ECC

concrete type, in addition to the experimental study that was performed on

the flexural

behavior of the composite beams with ECC layer. In chapter three, the exper-

imental

program was described, including the fabrication of the beam, materials, and
 This Project
can be listed in Five chapters with following topics

Chapter 1 Introduction.

Chapter 2 Literature review.

Chapter 3 Experimental program.

Chapter 4 Test results and Discussion.

Chapter 5 Conclusions.
Chapter 2
Fiber in concrete
Literature Review
One of the key components of concrete is the addition of fibers, which can help improve its
strength,

durability, and performance in various applications.

There are several different types of fibers that can be added to concrete, each type of them
has its own

unique properties and benefits.

1. Steel fibers

2. PVA fiber (polyvinyl alcohol) 5. polypropylene fiber

3. Glass Fiber 6. Polyester fiber

4. Synthetic fibers 7. Nylon fiber

The advantages of using fiber-reinforced
concrete
1.Fibers prevent early cracks by regulating shrinkage cracking caused by water, Fiber-reinforced

concrete

avoids or significantly decreases, early cracking from the outset.

2.When fiber is added to concrete, it boosts its overall properties, can assist reduce corrosion and

cavitation

damage, and has a higher tensile strength than unreinforced concrete.

3.Fiber-reinforced concrete is less likely to be harmed by high tensile stress and can support more

weight.

4.Depending on the structure, fibers can be used as an alternate reinforcement material to steel
The disadvantages of using fiber-reinforced
concrete
1.Fibers in concrete must be evenly distributed throughout the mix, If fiber reinforced concrete

is not mixed

properly, the margin of error can be large.

2.Fiber-reinforced concrete costs higher than non-reinforced concrete.

3.Concrete that contains fibers will typically weigh more than concrete that doesn't. This in-

creases the overall weight of the structure.

 ECC Con-
crete
-ECC (High performance fiber reinforced cementitious composites) is based on

the micromechanics of fiber-matrix bonding.

-ECC does not include coarse aggregates because of their impact on the duc-

tility of

cementitious composites.

-ECC exhibits great ductility when reinforced with enough discontinuous poly-

meric fibers.

-ECC helps optimize the materials utilized in the mix.

Mix proportion
-The components of ECC are fly ash, polymeric fibers, cement, water, and high range

water reducer admixtures (HRWRA).

-Coarse aggregates may have an impact on cementitious composites' ductile behavior.

Tensile Characteristics
-The high tensile ductility of ECC, as previously mentioned, is exemplified by

a uniaxial tensile stress–strain curve with a strain capacity of up to 5% (Fig-

ure 2-10).
Compressive characteristics
-There is no difference between the compressive properties of ECC and normal- to high-

strength concrete.

-ECC has compressive strengths between 20 and 95 MPa.

-ECC has a marginally higher compressive

strain capacity, ranging from 0.45 to 0.65%.

A strength growth curve for an ECC (M45)

compressive cylinder is depicted in Figure 2-11.

Chapter 3
 Experimental
Program
Test Specimens and fabrication

BEAMS GEOMETRY
Beams details and dimensions
Beams cross section
Test matrix of the
Beams
Preparation process for the
tested beams
Test setup details
Instrumentation
LVDT
The Linear Variable Differential Transformer (LVDT) can be used to mea-
sure vertical displacement for the tested beams.
Strain gauge
To measure the strains during the test.
Strain gauge use Only two beams have strain gauges, B1-NC and B1-0.5PP-Q
Data logger
A data logger is an electronic device that captures data over time. Data log-
gers use a
microprocessor, an internal memory for data storage, and a sensor to collect
data.
Concrete
Compression test
Splitting tension test
Casting process
The wooden formwork for the tested beams

Carpentry works

The inner dimensions of Formworks were 160*100*250

Mix design
Mixing procedure
In the first step, we cleaned the concrete mixer
very well before beginning the mixing
procedure, then we weighted
the material needed.
In the second step, we mixed sand and dolomite (for normal concrete only) , then the cement was poured on
the sand & dolomite mixture in the concrete mixer and mixed thoroughly for two minutes

mix sand, dolomite and cement with out water

In the last step, water with and without superplasticizers was added on three
times to make certain that it reached the entire mixture.

mix sand, dolomite and cement with water and superplasticizers

Casting procedure
First, we prepared the wooden formwork by applying oil to the whole form from
the inside in order to ease the process of removing the concrete.

Painting the formwork with oil

After mixing, the concrete is ready for casting and pouring into containers. Then,
the concrete mixture was placed into the formwork and samples, the compaction rod
and vibrator machine were used to compact concrete in order to reduce void
ratio and preventing nesting between concrete.
(see Figure 3-29).
The concrete surface was levelled using building rulers and then numbered the beams
and samples, as shown in

Finishing the concrete surface and labeling the beam

After casting the concrete in the forms and samples the forms removed after 24
hours to allow it to dry
The beams were covered with gunny bags and sprayed with water
every day for treatment (see Figure 3-33), while the cubes and
cylinders were stored in water-filled barrels. After curing process.

Curing specimens by water and gunny bags

Chapter 4
 Results and discussions
Beam B1-NC

Max.load = 70.2 kN
Max.strain = 117 Micro-strains
Max. deflection = 46.5 mm

Load versus vertical displacement at mid-span Load versus strain on bottom reinforcement
for the beam B1-NC steel bar
at mid-span for B1-NC
Beam B1-0.25-PP-Q

Max.load = 76 kN
Max. deflection = 77.2 mm

Load versus vertical displacement at mid-span

for the beam B2-0.25PP-Q
Beam B1-0.25-PP-H

Max.load = 76 kN
Max. deflection = 74.64 mm

Load versus vertical displacement at mid-span

for the beam B1-0.25PP-H
 Beam B1-0.5PP-Q

Max.load = 70.2 kN
Max.strain = 287.2 Micro-strains
Max. deflection = 46.5 mm

Load versus vertical bottom reinforcement strain

Load versus vertical displacement at mid-span
for the beam B1-0.5PP-Q at mid-span for B1-0.5PP-Q
Beam B1-0.5-PP-H

Max.load = 71 kN
Max. deflection = 63.24 mm

Load versus vertical displacement at mid-span

for the beam B1-0.5PP-H
Effect of PP fiber ratio

Effect of PP-fiber ratio: max-load and max-deflection for (Q)

ECC layer
Effect of PP-fiber ratio: max-load and max-deflection for (H)
ECC layer
Effect of ECC layer depth

Effect of ECC layer depth: max-load and max-deflection for 0.25% pp

fiber ratio.
Effect of ECC layer depth: max-load and max-deflection for 0.5% pp
fiber ratio.
Ductility
Ductility ratio for the tested beams

Comparison between the ductility ratio (index) for the tested beams
Failure modes and crack propagation

Failure modes for the tested beams

Chapter 5
Conclusion
In this study the Flexural behavior of ECC Layer-composite beam with top and bottom reinforcement

steel bar of 10 mm were investigated.

Results were shown by testing Five simply supported beams under two-point of load.

The following parameters were conducted to be studied:

1- polypropylene (PP) fiber ratio

Three ratio of PP fibers were used (0%PP,0.25%PP and 0.5%PP )

2- the depth of (ECC) concrete with respect to the depth of normal concrete

two depths of ECC layer were used 25% (Quarter(Q)) and 50% (Half (H)) of the total beam Height.
The results revealed the follow-
ing points
 The failure mode was flexural cracks started at the bottom of the beams toward the top part fol-
lowed by the yield of the bottom reinforcement, then the concrete crushed at the top of the beams
under the two points of loads.
 A higher load can be sustained by the beams with the ECC layer whereas the maximum strain of
beam with ECC layer was 170.2 micro strain higher than beam with normal concrete
 Using the ECC layer with greater depth has no effect on the results , which using beams with the
(Q) layer is more effective.
 The beams with 0.25% fiber and depth of (Q) have the maximum value of loads than (B1-NC) and
(B1- 0.25PP-H)
 Using ratio of .5% of fiber increases the maximum deflection than normal concrete and .25% fiber.
 Using ECC concrete in the tested beams increased the beam ductility.
 Using .5% fiber has higher ductility than .25% fiber.
Recommendation
So briefly we recommend to

Use ECC with (Q) layer than the (H) layer.

1. Make more studies on the fiber and steel reinforcement ratios.

2. Make more studies on beams with different length.
3. Use the beam with full ECC concrete which expects better performance.
 Section Break
Insert the title of your subtitle Here

Thank you our mento

Dr Islam Abd El-Fattah Mohamed
Salama

2023-2024