Mechanical, Physical, and Self-Healing Behaviors of Engineered Cementitious Composites with Glass Powder

This paper presents a detailed study on the use of glass powder (GP) as a binder in engineered cementitious composites (ECC). It investigates the effect of different levels of GP on the mechanical, physical, and self-healing efficiency of ECC. To assess recovery in GP-ECCs, multiple beams were preloaded up to 60% of their original flexure deformations at the age of 28 days and left to heal under moist curing. Compressive and flexural strengths, midspan beam deflection capacity, rapid chloride penetration, and resistivity tests were used to assess the performance of different ECC mixtures. To better understand the effect of GP content on the self-healing quality of ECCs, microstructural analysis was also performed via scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) in the surface and core regions of healed cracks. The results of this study show that production of ECCs with GP is possible, even at 100% GP replacement level with fly ash (FA). Acceptable physicomechanical behaviors can be achieved with 50, 75, and 100% GP replacement, with better performance at 25%. This study also confirms the good self-healing capability of GP-ECCs, especially at a 25% replacement level. (C) 2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.