A novel double bridging-slipping (DBS) concept to overcome deformation incompatibility of textile reinforced-engineering cementitious composite (TR-ECC)

Due to the deformation incompatibility between the engineering cementitious composite (ECC) matrix and embedded fiber reinforced polymer (FRP), conventional textile reinforced (TR)-ECC usually fails in premature FRP rupture when subjected to a tensile load. To address this issue, a novel double bridging-slipping (DBS)-based concept is proposed in this study. Apart from bridging-slipping capacity of incorporated short fibers in the ECC matrix, the presence of FRP strip can contribute to the other bridging-slipping mechanism for enhancing the tensile performance of the whole specimen. The embedment zone of FRP strips can bridge the crack tips of ECC matrix through the FRP-ECC interfacial bond stress, and the slippage of FRP strips in the uncracked zone can compensate for the excessive deformation of ECC matrix in the multi-cracking zone. Experimental results show that compared to the conventional TR-ECC, the proposed DBS-based TR-ECC with the same FRP volumetric ratio of 0.113 % can significantly improve the ultimate tensile strain and toughness by 148.3 % and 38.0 %, respectively. As DBS-based TR-ECC facilitates the combination of superior strength of FRP textiles and excellent toughness of ECC materials, it has a promising application in infrastructure projects.