Fire resistance of high strength ECC

• Main Author: Muhammad Taufiq
• Other Authors: Tan Kang Hai
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Civil engineering::Structures and design
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/71721
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

High Strength Engineered Cementitious Composites (HSECC) is an improvement geared towards increasing of mechanical properties of normal Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC). Due to the melting of PVA/ PE fibres, ECC will lose its tensile strength and ductility after a certain temperature therefore greater addition of steel fibre which has a higher melting point will have a positive impact towards the residual properties. In this study a mix with higher steel fibre content (1% by volume) as compared to regular ECC (0.5% by volume) was chosen to achieve a higher tensile strength as well as ductility of materials even after melting of PE/PVA fibres had occurred. HSECC dog-bone specimens were subjected to uniaxial tensile test to measure the tensile strength of the mix after being heated to different temperatures (ambient to 600° C at 100° C interval). As expected HSECC proved to have superior tensile strength and a strain capacity which is almost doubled as compared to ECC at ambient temperature. However HSECC performed poorly after being exposed to higher temperature with a tensile strength reduction of almost 63% at 300° C as compared to that of ECC loss of 10%. Strain capacity of HSECC performed slightly better as compared to ECC at all temperatures due to the higher volume of steel fibre. It was also demonstrated in this study that the HSECC mix will experience explosive spalling which is a strange phenomenon in ECC. Observation made showed that with the presence of fibres (PE and steel fibres) there was a reduction of the extent of explosive spalling as compared to mortar specimen.