Flexural ductility and crack-controlling capacity of polypropylene fiber reinforced ECC thin sheet with waste superfine river sand based on acoustic emission analysis

• Published in: Construction & building materials 2021-03, Vol.277, p.122321, Article 122321
• Main Authors: Tan, Guojin, Zhu, Zhiqing, Wang, Wensheng, Wu, Chunli, Ou, Ji, Cui, Guojun, Zhang, Dongmiao
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acoustic emission; Cost performance; Crack-controlling capacity; Engineered cementitious composite; Flexural ductility; PP fiber; Superfine river sand
• ISSN: 0950-0618; 1879-0526
• DOI: 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2021.122321

[Display omitted] •Utilization of waste SS is beneficial for the sustainable development of SSPP-ECC.•Flexural damage responses of SSPP-ECC thin plates are analyzed by AE technology.•Quantitative models between AE parameters and flexural ductility are established.•The proposed SSPP-ECC material has better economic and environmental performances. Engineered cementitious composite (ECC) with waste superfine river sand (WSRS) and polypropylene (PP) fiber is an economical and sustainable cement-based composite material (WSRSPP-ECC), which has the deformation hardening and multi-cracking characteristics, and affinity for engineering promotion. In this study, acoustic emission (AE) technology was used to monitor the flexural damage process of WSRSPP-ECC thin sheets with different deformability. Based on AE signal features, the damage development and accumulation of WSRSPP-ECC thin sheet under flexural load were analyzed. The results showed that AE signal parameters can capture and describe the transition of different damage stages of WSRSPP-ECC thin sheets. The b-value analysis further showed that the internal micro-cracks characteristics of WSRSPP-ECC thin sheets with various deformability were different in the flexural damage process, which was mainly related to the ability of fibers controlling stable cracking. In view of the smaller fluctuation of AE signals in the first two stages of flexural damage process, three modified indirect AE signal feature parameters including average energy, average waveform coefficient and average frequency were proposed. Then the quantitative relationship models between these three indirect AE signal parameters and flexural ductility as well as crack-controlling capacity of WSRSPP-ECC thin sheet were established. Moreover, through the economic analysis, it is corroborated that WSRSPP-ECC has the higher comprehensive cost performance, and it is a new economical cement-based material suitable for practical engineering application. The production of WSRSPP-ECC by replacing PVA fiber and silica sand with PP fiber and WSRS can not only save cost, and also keep the physical performances, which effectively solves the problems of river channel sedimentation and blocking.