Behaviour of hybrid fibre-reinforced engineered cementitious composites with strain recovery

A self-centring engineered cementitious composite (ECC) was developed. The novel ECC incorporates a hybrid combination of short and dispersed polyvinyl alcohol and shape memory alloy (SMA) fibres, thus achieving superior tensile and flexural characteristics. In addition to its enhanced ductility, the composite is endowed with strain recovery capability, which could be achieved by heat treatment, leading to crack closing through the shape memory effect of the SMA fibres. An inverse analysis method was proposed based on the experimental results to predict the uniaxial tensile test results of the ECC composites using simple flexural test results. The inverse method proved to be an effective predictive tool, cost effective in terms of laborious direct tensile tests and the associated sophisticated test set-up. The ductile composite endowed with crack-closing capability is a strong contender for critical infrastructure projects and protective structures.