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INTRODUCTION
Conventional concretes are almost unbendable and have a strain capacity of only 0.1%
making them highly brittle and rigid. This lack of bendability is a major cause of failure
under strain and has been a pushing factor in the development of an elegant material
namely, bendable concrete also known as Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC.)
This material is capable to exhibit considerably enhanced flexibility. A bendable concrete
is reinforced with micromechanically designed polymer fibers.

ECC is made from the same basic ingredients as conventional concrete but with the
addition of High-Range Water Reducing (HRWR) agent as it is required to impart good
workability. However, coarse aggregates are not used in ECCs (hence it is a mortar rather
than concrete). The powder content of ECC is relatively high. Cementitious materials,
such as fly ash, silica fume, blast furnace slag, etc., may be used in addition to cement for
increasing the paste content. Typically, ECC uses 2% by volume of short, discontinuous
fibers. ECC incorporates super fine silica sand and tiny Polyvinyl Alcohol- fibers covered
with a very thin (nanometer thick), slick coating. This surface coating allows the fiber to
begin slipping when they are over loaded so they are not fracturing.

Fig. 1.1: Response of ECC under Flexural Loading.

ECC prevents the fiber from rupturing which would lead to large cracking. Thus an ECC
deforms much more than a normal concrete but without fracturing. Fig. 1.1 shows the

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behaviour of ECC under flexural loading and it can be seen that the beam can deform well
without direct failure. The different ingredients of ECC work together to share the applied
load. ECC has proved to be 50 times more flexible than traditional concrete, and 40 times
lighter, which could even influence design choices in skyscrapers (Vol. 4, No. 1, February
2015 © 2015 IJSCER.) Additionally, the excellent energy absorbing properties of ECC
make it especially suitable for critical elements in seismic zones.

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 2. SCOPE AND BACKGROUND

Since ECC are more flexible than traditional concrete, it acts more like metal than
glass. Traditional concrete is considered to be a ceramic, brittle and rigid. It can suffer
catastrophic failure when strained in an earthquake or by routine overuse. It is studded
with specially-coated reinforcing fiber that hold it together. ECC remains intact and safe
to use at tensile strains up to 5%. Traditional concrete fractures and can’t carry a load at
0.01 % tensile strain.

In recent times, builders reinforce concrete structures with steel bars in order to
keep cracks as small as possible. But they are not small enough to heal. So, water and
deicing salts can penetrate till steel, causing corrosion that further weakens the structure.
Li’s self-healing concrete needs no steel reinforcement to keep crack width tight, thereby
eliminating corrosion.

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 3. INGREDIENTS OF BENDABLE CONCRETE
Engineered Cementitious composite is a composition of cement, sand, fly ash, water,
small amount of admixtures and an optimal amount of fibers. In the mix, coarse aggregates
are deliberately not used because property of ECC Concrete is formation of micro cracks
with large deflection. Coarse aggregates increase crack width, which is contradictory to the
property of ECC Concrete.

CEMENT

Cement used is Ordinary Portland cement. Numerous organic compounds which are
used for adhering or fastening materials are called cements. But, these are classified as
adhesives, and the term cement alone means a construction material. Blast furnace slag
may also be used in some cements and the cement is called Portland slag cement (PSC).
The color of the cement is due mainly to iron oxide. In the absence of impurities, the
color would be white. Ordinary Portland cement (OPC) – 53 grade (Ultra tech Cement) is
normally used.

SAND [FINEAGGREGATE]

Fine aggregate / natural sand is an accumulation of grains of mineral matter derived

from the disintegration of rocks. It is distinguished from gravel only by the size of the
grains or particles. But it is distinct from clays which contain organic materials. Sands
that have been sorted out and separated from the organic material by the action of currents
of water or by winds across arid lands are generally quite uniform in size of grains.
Usually commercial sand is obtained from river beds or from sand dunes originally
formed by the action of winds. The most commercially used are silica sands, often above
98% pure. Beach sands usually have smooth, spherical to ovoid particles from the

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abrasive action of waves and tides and are free of organic matter. The white beach sands
are largely siica but may also be of zircon, monazite, garnet, and other minor materials.
Sand is used for making mortar and concrete and for also used for polishing and
sandblasting. Sands containing a little clay are used for making molds in foundries. Clear
sands are employed for filtering water. The weight varies from 1,538 to 1,842 kg/m3,
depending on the composition and size of grain. The fine aggregate passing through 4.75
mm sieve with a specific gravity of 2.68 is normally used. The grading zone of fine
aggregate will be zone III as per Indian Standard specifications.

SUPERPLASTICIZER

Super plasticizer used is Melamine Formaldehyde Sulphonate. This is used to control

rheological properties of fresh concrete. Super plasticizers are additives to fresh concrete
which help in dispersing the cement uniformly in the mix. This is achieved by their
deflocculating action on cement agglomerates by which water entrapped in the groups of
cement grains is released and it is available for workability. Typically super plasticizer
increase slump from say 5 cm to about 18-20 cm without addition of water. When used to
achieve reduction in mixing water they can reduce water up to 15-20% and hence
decrease W/C ratio by same amount. This results in increase in strength and other
properties like density, water tightness. Where thin sections are to be cast super
plasticizer can increase workability to pumpable level and almost no compaction is
required. This helps in avoiding honeycombing. The permeability of concrete is a guide
to its durability. Gross porosity is usually due to continuous passage in the concrete due to
poor compaction or cracks which can be minimized by the use of super plasticizer, the
incorporation of which provides increased workability maintaining low w/c ratio. It is
reported that coefficient of permeability of cement paste reduces considerably with the
reduction in w/c ratio. Thus super plasticizer can be used effectively to improve the
properties of concrete and avoid defect. Melamine based Super plasticizer are used to
assess their effectiveness in improving durability. Melamine based super plasticizer are
reported to be the best and hence chosen for the research work.

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FLYASH

Fly ash used is pozzocrete dirk 60. And specifications provided by suppliers are given in
Table 1. In RCC construction, use of fly ash has been successful in reducing heat
generation without loss of strength, increasing ultimate strength beyond 180 days
providing additional fines for compaction. Replacement levels of primary class fly ash
have ranged from 30-75% by solid volume of cementitious material. In proportioning
mixes, for minimum paste volumes, one of principal function of a fly ash is to occupy
void space which would otherwise be occupied by cement or water. Occupation of void
space with water would obviously result in reduction in concrete strength. The fact is that
even a small amount of free lime liberated from cement is sufficient to react with large
volume of fly ash. The huge amount of fly ash is produced in the thermal power stations.
Class F fly ash is utilized so the acquisition cost may be reduced

PVA FIBRES

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 PVA fiber has suitable characteristics as reinforcing materials for cementitious
composites. High modulus of elasticity, durability, tensile strength and bonding strength
with concrete matrix are some of its desirable properties. PVA fiber has high strength and
modulus of elasticity (25 to 40GPa) compared to other general organic fiber which are
widely used for cement reinforcing. Fiber elongation is about 6-10%. The tensile strength
of fiber is between 880MPa to 1600MPa. One of the remarkable characteristics of PVA
fiber is strong bonding with cement matrix. The layer of Ca(OH)2 called ITZ(Interfacial
transition zone) around PVA fiber is formed as white part. And in case of PP, this layer is
not observed. It is known that PVA is easy to make complex cluster with metal
hydroxide. It is assumed that Ca+ and OH- ions in cement slurry are attracted by PVA
and makesCa(OH)2layer.ItseemsreasonabletothinkthatCa(OH)2layerplar important role
for bonding strength. Fig. 2 shows images of surface for coarse PVA fiber after single
fiber pull-out test. This image implies that surface of PVA fiber is peeled by Ca(OH)2
layer and this phenomena is related to strong bonding between PVA fiber and cement
matrix.

WATER
Water fit for drinking is generally considered fit for making concrete. Water should be
free from acids, oils, alkalis, vegetables or other organic Impurities. Soft waters also
produce weaker concrete. Water has two functions in a concrete mix. Firstly, it reacts
chemically with the cement to form a cement paste in which the inert aggregates are held in

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suspension until the cement paste has hardened. Secondly, it serves as a vehicle or lubricant
in the mixture of fine aggregates and cement.

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 4. MIX DESIGN

The mix design for ECC Concrete is basically based on Micromechanics design basis. Micromechanics is a
branch of mechanics applied at the material constituent level that captures the mechanical interactions
among the fiber, mortar matrix, and fiber matrix interface. Typically, fibers are of the order of millimeters in
length and tens of microns in diameter, and they may have a surface coating on the nanometer scale. Matrix
heterogeneities in ECC, including defects, sand particles, cement grains, and mineral admixture particles,
have size ranges from nano to millimeter scale. However the micromechanics based mix design requires
pull test to be carried on the PVA fibers, which is not possible in the laboratory. Hence the ideal mix
proportion given in the literature of ECC Concrete is used as the guidelines to determine the proportion of
various constituents in the concrete. The ideal Mix proportion which can be taken as reference is given in
the following sections.

PROPORTIONING OF CONCRETE

Initially, mix proportion was 1:0.8004:1.1996, PVA fiber 1% and super plasticizer dose was 1040.47
ml/bag and water to cementitious material ratio was 0.274. But by using this proportion workability was
not achieved. Hence for second trial, the mix proportion was changed to 1 : 0.9 : 1.1 and PVA fiber
percentage increased to 1.2% by keeping same dose of super plasticizer and increasing water to
cementitious material ratio to 0.3048. Third trial mix proportion was 1:1:1 and PVA fiber 1.2%, super
plasticizer dosage was reduced to 600ml/bag and water to cementitious material ratio was 0.33. Forth trial
mix proportion was 1:0.9:1.1, PVA fiber percentage 1.2%, super plasticizer dosage 600ml/bag along with
water to cementitious material ratio was 0.3118. To achieve workability various trials were taken. In fourth
proportion super plasticizer dose was reduced to obtain workability. For each trial mix, 3 cubes were
casted and cured using the accelerated curing tank and were tested to obtain desired strength requirement.
After testing cubes for each trial, the trail mix no. 3 was considered as most suitable and hence the final
mix proportion .However in order to increase the workability of concrete water to cementitious ratio was
increased to 0.35.

CASTING PROCEDURE OF ECC-CONCRETE

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 The performance of the ECC Concrete is influenced by the mixing. This means that a proper and good
practice of mixing can lead to better performance and quality of the ECC Concrete. The quality of the
concrete is also influenced by the homogeneity of the mix material, Flexural Test on Slab during the mixing
and after the placement of fresh concrete. A proper mix of concrete is encouraged to the strength of
concrete and better bonding of cement with the PVA fibers. Once the concrete mix design is finalized, the
mixing is carried out. The mixing of ECC Concrete is carried out by using hand mixing. The procedure of hand
mixing is as follows:- Add sand, cement, 50% of fly ash and 50% water and super plasticizer. Add slowly
remaining quantity of fly ash, water and super plasticizer. Once the homogenous mixture is formed, add the
PVA fibers slowly. Mix all the constituents till the fibers are homogenously mixed in the matrix.

PLACING, COMPACTION AND CASTING OF CONCRETE SPECIMENS.

Before placing of concrete, the concrete mould must be oiled for the ease of concrete specimens
stripping. The oil used is a mixture of diesel and kerosene. Special care is taken during the oiling of the
moulds, so that there are no concrete stains left on the moulds. Once the workability test of ECC Concrete
is done, the fresh concrete must be placed into the concrete moulds for hardened properties tests. During
the placing of fresh concrete into the moulds, tamping is done using Tamping rod in order to reduce the
honeycombing. After placing the concrete into the moulds, vibrations are done using a table vibrator. The
vibration of concrete allows full compaction of the fresh concrete to release any entrained air voids
contained in the concrete. If the concrete is not compacted to a proper manner, the maximum strength of
the concrete cannot be achieved. After vibration operation, the leveling of concrete is done on the surface
of the concrete. Leveling is the initial operation carried out after the concrete has been placed and
compacted. After the leveling of the fresh concrete is done, the concrete in the mould is left overnight to
allow the fresh concrete to set.

CURING OF CONCRETE SPECIMEN

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 After leaving the fresh concrete in the moulds to set overnight, the concrete specimens in the
moulds were stripping. The identification of concrete specimens was done. After 24 hours, all the concrete
specimens were placed into the curing tank with a controlled temperature of 25 0C in further for 28 days for
the hardened properties test of concrete. Curing is an important process to prevent the concrete specimens
from losing of moisture while it is gaining its required strength. Lack of curing will lead to improper gain
in the strength. After 28 days of curing, the concrete specimens are removed from the curing tank to
conduct hardened properties test of ECC Concrete.

5. PROPERTIES

Flexural strength of bendable concrete

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 Flexural strength is expressed in terms of modulus of rupture, which is the maximum stress at the extreme
fibers in bending. It is calculated by flexure formula. After removal of the beam specimen from the curing
tank, they are tested on the load frame of 20kN capacity. The load frame is provided with two rollers at a
distance of 400mm apart at the base. The load is applied through two similar rollers mounted at the third point
of the supporting span spaced 133mm apart and centrally with the respect to the base rollers. The axis of the
specimen is carefully aligned with the axis of the loading frame. The load is applied gradually without shock
increasing continuously such that the extreme fiber stresses increase at a rate of 7kg/ sq.cm/min. i.e.,
application of load it at the rate of 4000N/min. the load is divided equally between the two roller points and it
increased until the specimen fails.

Fig.6. Flexural strength of Conventional Concrete & ECC

Tensile strength of Bendable concrete
The splitting Tensile Strength indicates an increasing trend of tensile strength when fibers are added to
concrete. Whereas for Bendable Concrete the strength is more when compared with PCC. we can see the
variation of flexural strength with cement/sand ratios. replacement of fly ash with cement as 30% there is a

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gradual decrease of splitting tensile strength from C/S ratio 1:0.5 to 1:0.8, and then maximum strength
obtained at 1:0.5 C/S ratio for mix BC 12 has more splitting tensile strength is obtained as 5.53 MPa. we got
an increasing splitting tensile strength for 40% replacement of fly ash with cement. when the volume of fibers
is 2% there is noted strength obtained.

Fig.5. Tensile strength of Conventional Concrete & ECC

Compressive strength of bendable concrete

Compressive strength increases the strength of concrete by addition of 2% fiber addition of fibers into the
concrete shows maximum benefits in compressive strength. The test results of split tensile strength at 1,14,28
days. Tensile strength increases with increasing percentage of fibers.

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 Fig.4 Compressive strength of Conventional Concrete &ECC

6. APPLICATIONS
ECC have found use in a number of large-scale applications in Japan, Korea, Switzerland, Australia and
the U.S. These include:

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  The Mitaka Dam near Hiroshima was repaired using ECC in 2003. The surface of the then 60-year-
old dam was severely damaged, showing evidence of cracks, spalling, and some water leakage. A
20 mm-thick layer of ECC was applied by spraying over the 600 m2surface.
 Also in 2003, an earth retaining wall in Gifu, Japan, was repaired using ECC. Ordinary
portland cement could not be used due to the severity of the cracking in the original structure,
which would have caused reflective cracking. ECC was intended to minimize this danger; after one
year only microcracks of tolerable width wereobserved.
 The 95 m (312 ft.) Glorio Roppongi high-rise apartment building in Tokyo contains a total of 54
ECC coupling beams (two per story) intended to mitigate earthquake damage. The properties of
ECC (high damage tolerance, high energy absorption, and ability to deform under shear) give it
superior properties in seismic resistance applications when compared to ordinary portland cement.
Similar structures include the 41-story Nabeaure Yokohama Tower (four coupling beams perfloor.)
 The 1 km (0.62 mi) long Mihara Bridge in Hokkaido, Japan was opened to traffic in 2005. The
steel-reinforced road bed contains nearly 800 m3 of ECC material. The tensile ductility and tight
crack control behavior of ECC led to a 40% reduction in material used during construction.

7. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

ADVANTAGES
Fibers are not as efficient in withstanding tensile stresses as compared to conventional steel
reinforcement, but fibers are more closely spaced than steel which makes fibers better in
controlling cracks and shrinkage. The following advantages of ECC are summarized,

o Increased crack resistance, more energy absorption capacity, increased toughness and

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 long term ductility.
o Increased impact resistance and shear strength of concrete
o Fibers provides multidirectional reinforcements.
o Ultimate load carrying capacity in flexure is greatly enhanced.
o The weight of flexible concrete is approx. reduced by 20-40%.
o The use of steel reinforcement is reduced.

o It can be used as precast concrete.

o ECC incorporates high volumes of industrial wastes including fly ash, sands and wastes
from metal casting processes, wasted cement kiln dust from cement production, which
essentially reduces pollution.

DISADVANTAGES

o It has a high disadvantage of initial cost as compare to conventional concrete,

o It requires skilled labor for its construction.
o It needs some special type of materials which can be find in some areas.

CONCLUSION:
As the bending capacity will be more for bendable concrete, the structure will be safe for so many years
without any failure. Bendable concrete can possess more elastic property, by the deformation will ne more.
The compressive strength and flexural strength will be more for bendable concrete as compared to
conventional concrete. Bendable concrete will play a major role in the construction management department
to make the structure to hold for so many years without any failure.

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 ECC is the upcoming advancement in technology which will almost replace the conventional concrete in
countries which are more prone to natural disaster. But in India it is still a new material and requires proper
research for its use in India.

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REFERENCES:
WWW.CONSTRUCTOR.COM
WWW.GOOGLE.COM
WWW.LEARNCIVILENGG.COM
WWW.SCRIBD.COM

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