Construction and Building Materials 259 (2020) 119785

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Construction and Building Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat

Investigation on interface fracture properties and nonlinear fracture

model between ECC and concrete subjected to salt freeze-thaw cycles
Xiaowei Wu a, Jun Tian a,⇑, Hongwei Ma a, Yu Zheng a, Shaowei Hu b, Wenwei Wang c, Yinfei Du d,
Wentong Huang a, Can Sun a, Zhongfeng Zhu c
a
School of Environment and Civil Engineering, Dongguan University of Technology, Dongguan 523808, China
b
Department of Materials and Structural Engineering, Nanjing Hydraulic Research Institute, Nanjing 210029, China
c
School of Transportation, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China
d
School of Civil Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410075, China

h i g h l i g h t s

A three-parameter nonlinear fracture model of ECC-to-concrete interface was proposed.

Salt freeze-thaw erosion had a very negative effect on fracture properties of ECC-to-concrete interface.

Regardless of salt freeze-thaw cycles, the interface fracture propagation process includes three stages: initial crack, stable crack propagation, and
instability failure.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The work aims at investigating on interface fracture properties and nonlinear fracture model between
Received 16 October 2019 ECC and concrete under salt freeze-thaw cycles. Based on the interface nonlinear fracture mechanism,
Received in revised form 12 May 2020 a three-parameter nonlinear fracture model was proposed to comprehensive and accurately reflect the
Accepted 30 May 2020
degradation law of interface fracture properties under salt freeze-thaw cycles. The experimental results
Available online 18 June 2020
showed that the salt freeze-thaw erosion had a very negative effect on interface fracture properties.
Moreover, the occurrence of interface fracture under salt freeze-thaw cycles was affected remarkably
Keywords:
by ECC strength grade, and the higher ECC strength always leads to later occurrences of interface fracture.
Fracture property
Interface fracture
Regardless of cycles, the fracture propagation process of all specimens included three phases: initial
Fracture toughness crack, stable crack propagation, and instability failure. Moreover, the three phases all occurred at the
Salt freeze-thaw interface, and the crack did not extend to ECC or concrete substrate. Meanwhile, the fibers bridging effect
Nonlinear fracture model was very significant at the phases of crack stable propagation and instability failure. Only one kind of
Engineered cementitious composites (ECC) wedge-splitting load-crack mouth opening displacement (CMOD) curve was observed. As number of
cycles increased, slope of rising section curve and ultimate wedge-splitting loads all gradually decreased,
while the CMOD corresponding to ultimate splitting load had little change. The salt freeze-thaw erosion
had a very negative effect on three fracture parameters. Moreover, the three fracture parameters all
decreased continuously with the increasing number of cycles.
Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

Due to inherent brittleness of concrete materials, the reinforced

concrete structures have some shortcomings, such as oversized
crack (i.e., width more than 0.2 mm) [1,2], rebar corrosion [3,4],
⇑ Corresponding author at: No. 1, University Road, Dongguan City P.C. 523808,
and concrete cover spalling [5,6], which would lead to the decline
China.
E-mail addresses: wxw@dgut.edu.cn (X. Wu), tianjun@dgut.edu.cn (J. Tian),
of bearing capacity and the durability deterioration of reinforced
tmahw@jnu.edu.cn (H. Ma), zhengy@dgut.edu.cn (Y. Zheng), hushaowei@nhri.cn concrete structures. Accordingly, the damaged concrete structures
(S. Hu), wangwenwei@seu.edu.cn (W. Wang), yfdu_csu@csu.edu.cn (Y. Du), urgently need to be repaired and strengthened.
huangwt@dgut.edu.cn (W. Huang), sunc@dgut.edu.cn (C. Sun), zhongfeng_zhu@
seu.edu.cn (Z. Zhu).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2020.119785
0950-0618/Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
2 X. Wu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 259 (2020) 119785
At recent years, one new kind of material was developed, which
is called as ‘‘Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC)”. Mean-
while, it is also called ‘‘Ultra High Toughness Cementitious Com-
posite” or ‘‘Strain Hardening Cement-based Composites”,
respectively. Therefore, in order to ensure a unified name, the
cement-based material is called ‘‘ECC” in this paper. The ECC has
many prominent advantages, such as ultra-high toughness charac-
terization [7], micro-cracking property [8], strain-hardening prop-
erty [9], self-healing characterization [10], better permeability
resistance [11], and better durability [12,13], which is used to
repair damaged concrete structures [14,15].
The interface bonding behaviors between ECC and concrete are
the fundamental guarantee of ECC strengthening the damaged con-
crete structures. Moreover, compared to concrete or ECC, the inter-
face bonding behaviors are relatively weak, because of plenty of
defects and micro-cracks in interface. Accordingly, interface bond-
ing behaviors are a core problem that needs to be studied deeply
[16,17]. The main research status of interface basic mechanical
properties and interface durability are described as follows.
In previous studies, the effects of various factors, including
interface roughness, strength grade of ECC and concrete substrate,
interface curing ages, interface adhesive types, ECC reinforcement
methods, high temperature, etc., on interface tensile performance
between ECC and concrete have been conducted [16,18,19].
In addition, the effects of various factors, including interface
roughness, strength grade of ECC and concrete substrate, interface
moisture condition, interface adhesive types, interface curing ages,
interface orientation, high temperature, slag and fly ash content of
ECC, and sand-cement ratio of ECC, etc., on interface shear
performance between ECC and concrete have been conducted
[16,20–26]. Moreover, interface shear strength prediction model
and interface shear stress-slip model between ECC and concrete
were also studied by Jun Tian and Xiaowei Wu, et al. [27].
So far, the effects of interface roughness on interface fracture
performance [28,29] and interface fatigue performance [30,31]
between ECC and concrete were conducted. And the results show
that interface roughness has marked impacts on the interface fati-
gue performance and fracture energy.
Especially for ECC repairing concrete structures in the cold
regions, the interface damage subjected to salt freeze-thaw cycles
is one of the primary durability problems. Therefore, the interface
durability subjected to salt freeze-thaw cycles become an urgent
issue to be studied. Meanwhile, the degradation law of interface
shear strength and shear strength degradation model between
ECC and concrete subjected to salt freeze-thaw cycles have been
studied by Jun Tian and Xiaowei Wu, et al. [32]. However, the inter-
face shear strength only can reflect nominal average stress, and
cannot reflect the internal changes of interface during the loading
process and the influences of inherent defects and micro-cracks in
the interface. While fracture toughness can reflect the internal
changes of interface during the loading process, as well as the
impacts of inherent defects and micro-cracks in interface, and frac-
ture toughness also contains two aspects information of strength
and deformation. Therefore, the interface fracture toughness can
more sensitively, comprehensive, and accurately reflect the inter-
face degradation law subjected to salt freeze-thaw cycles.
Table 1
Test material mix ratio (kg/m3).
Mix Water Cement Fly Silica Fine
types ash fume aggregate
Concrete 162.0 455.0 66.0 – 5320.0
ECC-1 396.8 248.0 992.0 40.0 248.0
ECC-2 473.0 956.5 286.5 40.0 250.0
ECC-3 353.4 378.7 953.5 40.0 308.7
Meanwhile, existing several concrete nonlinear fracture models,
including fictitious crack model [33], crack band model [34], size
effect model [35], effect crack model [36], two-parameter fracture
model [37], double-K fracture model [38], are only applicable to a
single material of concrete, and the nonlinear fracture characteris-
tics are assumed to be completely caused by the micro-crack zone
at the macroscopic crack front. While the ECC-to-concrete interface
is consisting of two different materials. In addition, the nonlinear
fracture characteristics of the interface are caused by fiber bridging
effects and micro-crack zone at the crack front. So, all the above
concrete nonlinear fracture models couldn’t be directly applied to
study of the interface fracture characteristics between ECC and
concrete.
However, the literature review shows that there is no investiga-
tion on interface nonlinear fracture model and the degradation law
of interface fracture properties between ECC and concrete sub-
jected to salt freeze-thaw cycles until now. Accordingly, the work
focuses on studying the interface nonlinear fracture model and
the degradation law of interface fracture properties between ECC
and concrete under salt freeze-thaw cycles.
2. Experimental program
2.1. Materials
One type of concrete mixture and three types of ECC mixtures
were designed, as listed in Table 1. Only one kind of PVA fiber
was selected add to ECC matrix with a volume content of 2%, and
the material parameters of ultimate tensile strength, tensile elastic
modulus, elongation, diameter, length, and density were
1560 MPa, 38 GPa, 7%, 39 lm, 12 mm, and 1300 kg/m3, respec-
tively. The measured 28-days compressive strengths of ECC mix-
ture and concrete mixture are all listed in Table 1.
To obtain basically the same interface roughness of each group
of specimens in this experiment, the epoxy resin is selected to
bond limestone aggregates with the interface, which is not as a
binder for concrete and ECC, and it is also selected as a protective
layer on specimens’ surface, as shown in Figs. 5 and 7. Its material
properties of tensile strength, elastic modulus, and density, pro-
vided by manufacturer, were 30 MPa, 3.8 GPa, and 1.31 kg/L,
respectively.
2.2. Specimen design
A group of axial tensile specimens of each ECC mixture was pre-
pared and each group had three specimens. The detailed geometric
dimensions of axial tensile specimens are shown in Fig. 1.
All wedge-splitting specimens were chipped cubes, which
external geometric dimensions of length, width, and depth were
140 mm, 40 mm, and 130 mm, respectively, and interface bonding
dimensions were 50 mm  40 mm. The particular size and detail
structure of wedge-splitting specimen are shown in Fig. 2.
A total of 195 wedge-splitting specimens with three types of
ECC strength grades, one type of concrete strength grade, and
one type of interface roughness was prepared, as listed in Table 2.
The interface roughness was manufactured by first removing the
Coarse Water-reducing Fiber volume Compressive strength
aggregate agent fraction (MPa)
1213.0 4.0 – 49.7
– – 2% 21.7
– 1.0 2% 32.6
– 4.0 2% 40.8
 X. Wu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 259 (2020) 119785 3

Each group specimens’ labels are named as follows: the ‘‘PL”

indicated the wedge-splitting specimens; the second numbers
(i.e., 1, 2 or 3) indicated the ECC strengths of 21.7 MPa, 32.6 MPa,
and 40.8 MPa; the third number (N) indicated the number of salt
freeze-thaw cycles. For example, PL-3-175 represented the
wedge-splitting specimens with ECC strength of 40.8 MPa under-
going 175 salt freeze-thaw cycles.
Before making wedge-splitting specimens, the steel moulds of
type A and B were manufactured, as shown in Fig. 4. Steel mould
of type A was used to pour the concrete mixture to form concrete
substrate, as shown in Fig. 4a. Steel mould of type B was used to
pour ECC mixture, which was bonded with the concrete substrate
to form the wedge-splitting specimens, as shown in Fig. 4b. The
details manufacture of wedge-splitting specimens are as follows.

1) The chamber of steel mould of type A was used for con-

Fig. 1. Details of axial tensile specimens: (a) front view; (b) side view (mm).
cement paste of concrete substrate surface, then applying approx-
imately 2 mm thick epoxy resin on concrete substrate surface, and
immediately pasting 2.5–5.0 mm limestone aggregates onto the
epoxy resin attached to concrete substrate surface. According to
previous research by Jun Tian, Xiaowei Wu, et al. [27,32], the inter-
face roughness value, which is the average vertical heights of local
convexity and concave of the interface [39], can be selected to eval-
uate the interface roughness. The interface roughness value was
3.33 mm, which was measured by a device [39], as shown in Fig. 3.
All the 195 wedge-splitting specimens were classified into 13
groups of specimens PL-1-N, PL-2-N, and PL-3-N, respectively,
which were used to investigate the degradation law of interface
fracture properties subjected to salt freeze-thaw cycles, as listed
in Table 2. There are five specimens in each group. When the data
error of a single specimen exceeds 15% of the average value of this
group, it would be removed, so as to obtain three data with rela-
tively small dispersion for each group of specimens.
structing the concrete mixture, which was made by several
steel components/plates, as shown in Fig. 4a. After 24 h,
the steel plates were stripped.
2) According to the above-mentioned interface production
method, the interface roughness was produced, as shown
in Fig. 5.
3) Another chamber of steel mould of type B was used for con-
structing the ECC mixture, which was made by install the
concrete substrate and some steel components, as shown
in Fig. 6. All the wedge-splitting specimens were cured
21 days.
4) About 2 mm thick epoxy resin, selected as a protective layer,
was uniformly coated on the outer surface of all specimens,
except for the 10 mm width at center of specimen, as shown
in Fig. 7.
2.3. Test methods
2.3.1. Axial tensile test
During the loading process, two gimbal joints was designed at
the bottom and top of ECC specimen to make the specimens under
axial tensile, as shown in Fig. 8. The axial tensile forces acting on
the ECC specimens were applied by a material mechanics testing
machine at the speed of 0.2 mm/min, as shown in Fig. 9.

50 40 50
30

Interface
Concrete ECC ECC
Concrete
50

40
130

70 70
50

Fig. 2. Geometric dimensions of wedge-splitting specimens: (a) side view and (b) top view (mm).

Table 2
Details of wedge-splitting specimens.

Specimen Interface geometric concrete ECC Interface Numbers of specimen Experimental parameters
labels dimensions (mm) strengths strengths roughness values (group  number)
(MPa) (MPa) (mm)
PL-1-N 40  50 49.7 21.7 3.33 13  5 Interface fracture properties, damage modes
PL-2-N 40  50 49.7 32.6 3.33 13  5 subjected to salt freeze-thaw, and cycle life
PL-3-N 40  50 49.7 40.8 3.33 13  5
4 X. Wu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 259 (2020) 119785

Fig. 3. Measurement schematic diagram [39].

2.3.2. Salt freeze-thaw test

Before test, the 13 groups of wedge-splitting specimens PL-1-N,
PL-2-N, and PL-3-N all have been soaked in the NaCl solution with
Fig. 5. Interface roughness of concrete bonding with ECC.
3.5 wt% at 20℃ for four days. The salt freeze-thaw test with NaCl
solution of the same concentration have been performed according
to the method of Procedure A in the ASTM C666 [40].
Firstly, the 13 groups of wedge-splitting specimens PL-1-N, PL-
2-N, and PL-3-N were all used for the salt freeze-thaw cycles test.
Subsequently, after every 25 cycles, one group of specimens PL-1-
N, PL-2-N, and PL-3-N were used for wedge-splitting test to mea-
sure the degradation law of interface fracture properties. If the
interface fractured in salt freeze-thaw test or reached 300 cycles,
the test would be stopped.

2.3.3. Wedge-splitting test

The loading device for wedge-splitting test is shown in Fig. 10.
The loading device is consisted of two force plates and a wedge
loading frame. And the angle of wedge loading frame is 15°, as
shown in Fig. 11. The wedge loading frame and mechanical testing
machine are fixed together through bolts. A universal testing
machine applied the force acting on the bonding interface at the
vertical displacement rate of 30 lm/s. The real-time crack mouth
opening displacement was collected by LVDT. The real-time dis-
placement and load of wedge loading frame were collected by
the testing machine. Fig. 6. The chamber for ECC.

Fig. 4. Two types of steel moulds: (a) pouring concrete mixture and (b) pouring ECC mixture.
 X. Wu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 259 (2020) 119785 5

Fig. 7. Wedge-splitting specimen with and without protective layer.

Fig. 9. Axial tensile test setup.

Wedge loading frame

Force plate F H F H Force plate

Concrete ECC

35 70 35

Fig. 10. Schematic diagram of wedge-splitting test (mm).

3. Results and discussion

3.1. ECC tensile properties

We can see that the all tensile stress–strain curves of ECC spec-
imens are basically similar, as shown in Fig. 12. Tensile stress–
strain curves displayed a linear relationship before ECC specimens
cracked. After the specimens cracked, the curves displayed a strain
hardening behavior, because of the fibers bridging effect, and the
maximum ultimate tensile strain is 4.1%. The ultimate tensile
Fig. 8. Schematic diagram of axial tensile loadings.
6 X. Wu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 259 (2020) 119785

in Fig. 15a and b, respectively, mainly because higher strength of

ECC can improve the interface adhesion to resist interface fracture.
Hence, it can be inferred that the ECC strength grade had
marked impacts on interface fracture subjected to salt freeze-
thaw cycles, and the higher ECC strength always leads to later
occurrence of interface fracture. Besides, according to the surface
erosion and failure modes of salt freeze-thaw test, it can be also
inferred that the interface failure is mainly due to deterioration
of interface between concrete and ECC matrix, not the deteriora-
tion of PVA fiber.

3.3. The phenomenon of wedge-splitting test

Fig. 11. Angle of wedge loading frame. The principal phenomenon of wedge-splitting test after salt
freeze-thaw cycles is as follows.

1) Regardless of cycles, the fracture propagation process of all

stress of ECC-1, ECC-2, and ECC-3 specimens are 4.2 MPa, 5.2 MP,
and 5.5 MPa, respectively. And the multiple micro-cracking behav-
iors of ECC specimens are shown in Fig. 13.
3.2. Failure modes of salt freeze-thaw test
Interface fracture and surface erosion of salt freeze-thaw test
are shown in Figs. 14 and 15, respectively. The surface of all spec-
imens without protective layer have been eroded undergoing sev-
eral cycles. For the specimens PL-1-N, after 75 cycles the interface
fractured occurred mainly because of the lower ECC strength, as
shown in Fig. 14. On the contrary, for the specimens PL-2-N and
PL-3-N, after 300 cycles the interface had no fractured, as shown
specimens includes three phases: initial crack, stable crack
propagation, and instability failure. And the three phases
all occurred at the interface, and the crack did not extend
to ECC or concrete substrate. Taking specimen PL-2-125 as
an example, the process of initial crack, stable crack propa-
gation, and instability failure is shown in Fig. 16. The main
reason for above phenomena is that the interface mechani-
cal properties were significantly worse than those of ECC
and concrete, because of inherent plenty of defects and
micro-cracks in interface.
2) When the crack developed to stable growth stage, the bridg-
ing fibers in the interface can be clearly observed by an
endoscopic pinhole camera, as shown in Fig. 17.

Fig. 12. Tensile stress–strain curves: (a) ECC-1; (b) ECC-2; (c) ECC-3.
 X. Wu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 259 (2020) 119785
Fig. 13. Representatives of multiple micro-cracking behaviors.
Fig. 14. Interface fracture and surface erosion of specimen PL-1-N.
3) When crack penetration interface, that is, ECC and concrete
substrate were completely separated, the interface could
still bear a load, which can make the ECC part of specimen
suspended, as shown in Fig. 18, because the bridging effect
of PVA fibers in the interface played a vital role in the bear-
ing wedge splitting load. Therefore, it can be concluded that
the fibers bridging effect was very significant at the stage of
crack stable propagation and instability failure.
3.4. Wedge-splitting load-crack mouth opening displacement (CMOD)
curve
The wedge-splitting load-CMOD curve of all specimen groups
subjected to salt freeze-thaw cycles are shown in Figs. 19–21.
7
Regardless of cycles, only one type of wedge-splitting load-
CMOD curve was observed. The curve presented an approximately
linear relationship before loads reached to the 0.6–0.8 times of
maximum values. After the 0.6–0.8 times of maximum loads, the
curve presented a non-linear relationship. After maximum loads,
the wedge-splitting loads decreased sharply with increasing of
CMOD, and all curves presented some ductility.
As increasing salt freeze-thaw cycles, the slope of rising section
curve and the ultimate wedge-splitting loads all gradually
decreased, while the crack mouth opening displacement corre-
sponding to ultimate splitting load had little change.
4. Nonlinear fracture model of ECC-to-concrete interface
4.1. Interface nonlinear fracture mechanism analysis
According to wedge-splitting load-CMOD curves in this paper,
the curves all showed obvious nonlinearity, and the fracture prop-
agation process could be classified into three phases: initial crack,
stable crack propagation, and instability failure, as shown in
Fig. 22.
4.1.1. Mechanism analysis of interface initial crack stage
Due to inherent defects in the interface between ECC and con-
crete, after the interface bearing splitting loads, there was a micro-
crack zone at crack front, as shown in Fig. 23a. When the load
reached the crack initiation load, several tiny cracks in the micro-
crack zone eventually turned into a macroscopic crack, which leaded
to the load-CMOD curve started to show nonlinear behavior.
4.1.2. Mechanism analysis of interface stable crack propagation stage
According to the test phenomenon in this paper, when the crack
developed to stable growth stage, there were some bridging fibers
in the interface crack, and the fiber bridging effect was very signif-
icant, as shown in Figs. 17 and 18. The lengths of crack without and
with fiber bridging effects are defined as free fracture zone and
fiber bridging zone in Fig. 23, respectively. During the stable crack
propagation stage, both the fiber bridging zone and the micro-
crack zone at crack front leaded to the obvious nonlinear behavior
of load-CMOD curve, as shown in Fig. 23b.
8 X. Wu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 259 (2020) 119785

Fig. 15. Interface without fracture and surface erosion of specimens: (a) PL-2-N and (b) PL-3-N.

Fig. 16. Process of initial crack, stable crack propagation, and instability failure of specimen PL-2-125.

4.1.3. Mechanism analysis of interface instability failure stage
During the instability failure stage, the micro-crack zone devel-
oped to the end of specimen, as shown in Fig. 23c. As further
increase of CMOD, micro-crack zone continued to reduce, and
finally only fiber bridging zone remained, as shown in Fig. 23d.
In the whole process, the splitting load gradually decreased with
the increased of crack mouth opening displacement. In a word,
the nonlinear fracture characteristics of ECC-to-concrete interface
are mainly caused by the fiber bridging zone and the micro-crack
zone at crack front.
 X. Wu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 259 (2020) 119785 9

Fig. 17. Bridging fibers in the interface at crack stable propagation stage.

Fig. 18. ECC part suspended due to fibers bridging effect.

4.2. Basic assumptions

The nonlinear part of load-CMOD curve of ECC-to-concrete

interface could be regarded as an outlying line composed of a point
(e.g., B, C . . . G, etc.) of a series of virtual elastic materials in the
curve, as shown in Fig. 24. This series of virtual elastic materials
could be investigated by linear elastic fracture mechanics, so non-
linear fracture problem of ECC-to-concrete interface was trans-
formed into linear elastic fracture problem of a series of virtual
elastic materials. Therefore, the nonlinear fracture problem of
ECC-to-concrete interface could be investigated indirectly by using
linear elastic fracture mechanics.

4.3. Three parameters of fracture criterion

Fig. 19. Load-CMOD curve of specimens PL-1-N.

Due to the fracture propagation process includes three phases:
initial crack, stable crack propagation, and instability failure, and
the wedge-splitting load-CMOD curve presented obvious nonlin-
earity. Therefore, one three-parameter fracture criterion (i.e., crack the interface nonlinear fracture characteristics and degradation
initiation fracture toughness K QIc , instability fracture toughness K SIc , law of interface fracture characteristics under salt freeze-thaw
and nonlinear fracture amplitude DK ¼ K SIc  K QIc ) is proposed in the cycles. The function expression of interface crack development
paper, which was used to comprehensive and accurately evaluate state is shown in Eq. (1).
10 X. Wu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 259 (2020) 119785

Fig. 20. Load-CMOD curve of specimens PL-2-N.

Fig. 21. Load-CMOD curve of specimens PL-3-N.

 X. Wu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 259 (2020) 119785 11

4.4. Interface fracture toughness analytical formula

FH
4.4.1. Determination of interface elastic modulus
The analytical formula of wedge-splitting load, CMOD, and elas-
Instability failure starting point tic modulus [41] is shown in Eq. (2). When 0:2 6 a 6 0:975, the
F max calculation error of analytical formula is only 0.5%.

CMOD ¼ FtEH V l ðaÞ, a ¼ a=h, F H ¼ F=2tan15 ,
F ini  2
1þa 
Initial crack point

V l ðaÞ ¼ 2:163 þ 12:219a  20:065a2  0:9925a3

1a

þ20:609a4  9:9314a5 ð2Þ
where F and F H are vertical and horizontal wedge splitting load,
respectively; E is interface elastic modulus; a is crack length; h
and t are height and thickness of wedge-splitting specimens,
respectively.
O So, the calculating formula of interface elastic modulus could be
CMOD
obtained by converting Eq. (2) and setting a ¼ a0 , as shown in Eq.
Initial crack Stable crack propagation Instability failure
(3)
Fig. 22. Load-CMOD curve of ECC-to-concrete interface.
FH
E ¼ tCMOD V l ðaÞ, a ¼ a0 =h,
 2
1þa 
V l ðaÞ ¼ 2:163 þ 12:219a  20:065a2  0:9925a3
1a
8 
>
> K < K QIc ; Crack without initiation; þ20:609a4  9:9314a5 ð3Þ
>
>
>
> K¼ K QIc ;
>
< Crack initiation; where a0 is initial crack length, m.
K QIc < K < K SIc ; Crack stable expansion; ð1Þ
>
>
>
> S Crack critical state; 4.4.2. Determination of critical effective crack length
> K ¼ K Ic ;
>
>
: The critical crack effective length is crack length of interface
S
K > K Ic ; Instability failure:
under the ultimate loads, as shown in Fig. 23b. The calculating for-
mula of critical effective crack length [42] is shown in Eq. (4).

Wedge-splitting load Migration direction

Wedge-splitting load Migration direction

ECC ECC

Critical effective crack length

Micro-cracks
PVA fibers Micro-cracks

Initial crack length

Initial crack length Free crack zone Concrete
Concrete
Micro-crack zone Fiber bridging zone
Micro-crack zone

Wedge-splitting load Migration direction

Wedge-splitting load
Migration direction
ECC
ECC

PVA fibers Micro-cracks PVA fibers

Initial crack length

Free crack zone Concrete Initial crack length
Free crack zone Concrete
Fiber bridging zone
Fiber bridging zone
Micro-crack zone

Fig. 23. Nonlinear fracture mechanism analysis: (a) initial crack; (b) stable crack growth; (c) and (d) instability.
12 X. Wu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 259 (2020) 119785

FH

C
B D

F ini E
A
F

O
CMOD
Initial crack Stable crack propagation Instability failure

Fig. 24. Schematic diagram of linear progressive superposition instead of

nonlinearity.

2 !1=2 3 Fig. 25. Degradation law of interface instability fracture toughness with various
13:18
ac ¼ ðh þ h0 Þ41  CMODc Et 5  h0 ECC strength grades.
ð4Þ
F Hmax
þ 9:16

where h0 is steel plate thickness of clip gauge, m.
4.4.3. Determination of instability fracture toughness
The calculating formula of interface instability fracture tough-
ness [41] is shown in Eq. (5). When 0:2 6 a 6 1:0, the calculation
error of calculating formula is only 0.5%.
K SIc ¼ thF1=2
H
f ðaÞ, a ¼ ac =h,
 
ð2 þ aÞ 0:886 þ 4:64a  13:32a2 þ 14:72a3  5:6a4
f ðaÞ ¼
ð1  aÞ3=2
where K SIc is interface instability fracture toughness, MPa  m1=2 ;
F Hmax is maximum horizontal wedge-splitting load, kN; ac is critical
effective crack length, m.
4.4.4. Determination of crack initiation fracture toughness
The calculating formula of interface crack initiation fracture
toughness [41] is shown in Eq. (6). When 0:2 6 a 6 1:0, the calcu-
lation error of calculating formula is only 0.5%.
F HQ 103
K QIc ¼ th1=2
f ðaÞ, a ¼ a0 =h
 
ð2 þ aÞ 0:886 þ 4:64a  13:32a2 þ 14:72a3  5:6a4
f ðaÞ ¼
ð1  aÞ3=2
where K QIc is interface crack initiation fracture toughness,
MPa  m1=2 ; F HQ is horizontal crack initiation load, kN.
4.5. Degradation law of interface fracture characteristics under salt
freeze-thaw cycles
4.5.1. Degradation law of interface instability fracture toughness
The degradation law of interface instability fracture toughness
of all specimen groups subjected to salt freeze-thaw erosion is
shown in Fig. 25.
As number of cycles increased, interface instability fracture
toughness of specimens PL-1-N, PL-2-N, and PL-3-N were all
decreased. After 25, 25, and 150 cycles, the interface instability
fracture toughness of specimens PL-1-N, PL-2-N, and PL-3-N began
to decrease sharply, respectively. After 50 cycles, the reducing ratio
of interface instability fracture toughness of specimens PL-1-N was
39%. After 300 cycles, the reducing ratios of interface instability
fracture toughness of specimens PL-2-N and PL-3-N were 63%
and 70%, respectively.
Hence, it can be inferred that the salt freeze-thaw cycles had a
significant negative effect on interface instability fracture tough-
ness. As number of cycles increased, interface instability fracture
toughness decreased continuously. And the higher ECC strength
could lead to later decrease sharply of interface instability fracture
ð5Þ toughness. Similar conclusions were also obtained by other
researchers [43–45]. Salt freeze-thaw cycles had a marked negative
effect on concrete instability fracture toughness. As the number of
cycles increased, the concrete instability fracture toughness
decreased continuously. And the higher compressive strength of
concrete could lead to later decrease sharply of concrete instability
fracture toughness.
In addition, combining the surface erosion and failure modes of
salt freeze-thaw test, it can be concluded that the degradation of
interface instability fracture toughness is mainly from the deterio-
ration of interface between concrete and ECC matrix, not the dete-
rioration of PVA fiber.
ð6Þ
4.5.2. Degradation law of interface crack initiation fracture toughness
The degradation law of interface crack initiation fracture tough-
ness of all specimen groups subjected to salt freeze-thaw erosion is
shown in Fig. 26.
As number of cycles increased, interface crack initiation fracture
toughness of specimens PL-1-N, PL-2-N, and PL-3-N were all
declined. After 50 cycles, the reducing ratio of interface instability
fracture toughness of specimens PL-1-N was 35%. After 300 cycles,
the reducing ratios of interface instability fracture toughness of
specimens PL-2-N and PL-3-N were 51% and 69%, respectively.
Hence, it can be inferred that the salt freeze-thaw cycles had a
marked negative effect on interface crack initiation fracture tough-
ness, and the interface crack initiation fracture toughness
decreased continuously with increasing number of cycles. And
degradation of interface initiation fracture toughness is mainly
from the deterioration of interface between concrete and ECC
matrix, not the deterioration of PVA fiber.
 X. Wu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 259 (2020) 119785
Fig. 26. Degradation law of interface crack initiation fracture toughness with
various strength grades.
Fig. 27. Degradation law of interface nonlinear fracture amplitude with various
strength grades.
4.5.3. Degradation law of interface nonlinear fracture amplitude
The degradation law of nonlinear fracture amplitude of all spec-
imen groups subjected to salt freeze-thaw erosion is shown in
Fig. 27.
For the specimens PL-1-N, before 25 cycles, the interface nonlin-
ear fracture amplitude began to increase with increasing number of
cycles. However, after 25 cycles, the interface nonlinear fracture
amplitude began to decrease with increasing number of cycles.
For the specimens PL-2-N, before 50 cycles, the interface non-
linear fracture amplitude decreased significantly with increasing
number of cycles. However, after 50 cycles, the interface nonlinear
fracture amplitude began to decrease slightly with increasing
number of cycles, and the decreasing process showed some
discreteness.
13
For the specimens PL-3-N, before 75 cycles, the interface non-
linear fracture amplitude gradually decreased with increasing
number of cycles. However, after 75 cycles, the interface nonlinear
fracture amplitude gradually decreased with increasing number of
cycles, and the decreasing process showed some discreteness.
Hence, it can be inferred that the salt freeze-thaw cycles had a
significant effect on interface nonlinear fracture amplitude, that is,
the process of stable crack propagation.
5. Conclusions
1) Based on interface nonlinear fracture mechanism, an inter-
face nonlinear fracture model with three parameters (i.e.,
interface instability fracture toughness, interface crack initi-
ation fracture toughness, and interface nonlinear fracture
amplitude) was proposed, which could be used to compre-
hensive and accurately reflect the degradation law of inter-
face fracture properties under salt freeze-thaw cycles.
2) Salt freeze-thaw erosion had a very negative effect on inter-
face fracture properties. Moreover, under salt freeze-thaw
cycles, occurrence of interface fracture was affected remark-
ably by ECC strength grade, and the higher ECC strength
always leads to later occurrences of interface fracture.
3) Regardless of cycles, the fracture propagation process of all
specimens includes three phases: initial crack, stable crack
propagation, and instability failure. Meanwhile, the three
phases all occurred at the interface, and the crack did not
extend to ECC or concrete substrate. And the fibers bridging
effect was very significant at the phases of crack stable prop-
agation and instability failure.
4) Regardless of cycles, only one kind of wedge-splitting load-
CMOD curve was observed. The curve presented an approx-
imately linear relationship before loads reached to the 0.6–
0.8 times of maximum values. After the 0.6–0.8 times of
maximum loads, the curve presented a non-linear relation-
ship. After maximum loads, the wedge-splitting loads
decreased sharply with the increasing of CMOD, and the
curves presented some ductility. As number of cycles
increased, the slope of rising section curve and the ultimate
wedge-splitting loads gradually decreased, while the CMOD
corresponding to ultimate splitting load had little change.
5) The salt freeze-thaw erosion had a very negative effect on
three fracture parameters (i.e., interface instability fracture
toughness, interface crack initiation fracture toughness,
and interface nonlinear fracture amplitude). As the number
of cycles increased, the three fracture parameters all
decreased continuously. Besides, the higher ECC strength
could lead to later decrease sharply of interface instability
fracture toughness.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Xiaowei Wu: Writing - review & editing. Jun Tian: Conceptual-
ization, Writing - review & editing. Hongwei Ma: Formal analysis.
Yu Zheng: Writing - original draft. Shaowei Hu: Investigation.
Wenwei Wang: Conceptualization. Yinfei Du: Writing - original
draft. Wentong Huang: Formal analysis. Can Sun: Validation.
Zhongfeng Zhu: Data curation.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
14 X. Wu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 259 (2020) 119785

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