Engineered cementitious composites (ECC) with manufactured sand (M-sand) for pavement applications

Nowadays, Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC) are highly regarded for use in pavement applications due to their exceptional deformability . Nonetheless, these composites' high cost and limited practicality restrict their use in pavements and overlays. Few studies are available using river sand substituting micro silica sand (MSS) to produce economic ECC, but the depletion of river sand and increased cost limit the large-scale applications. To address these aforementioned challenges, the present study aimed to explore the feasibility of replacing natural sand with manufactured sand (M-sand). The present article discussed the optimization of superplasticizer dosage subjected to desired rheological properties. Further, the influence of M-sand gradation (coarse/fine) on the mechanical properties of ECC is presented. The results revealed that using M-sand slightly increased the compressive (10–30%) and tensile strength and showed a noticeable decrease (22–35%) in the tensile strain capacity. Moreover, the gradation of M-sand considerably influenced the tensile strain capacity , with a decrease of 17% in coarser gradation mixtures. These preliminary results provide valuable insights into the development and utilization of M-sand in the matrix tailoring of ECC.