Influence of Rapid Freeze-Thaw Cycling on the Mechanical Properties of Sustainable Strain-Hardening Cement Composite (2SHCC)

This paper provides experimental results to investigate the mechanical properties of sustainable strain-hardening cement composite (2SHCC) for infrastructures after freeze-thaw actions. To improve the sustainability of SHCC materials in this study, high energy-consumptive components—silica sand, cement, and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fibers—in the conventional SHCC materials are partially replaced with recycled materials such as recycled sand, fly ash, and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fibers, respectively. To investigate the mechanical properties of green SHCC that contains recycled materials, the cement, PVA fiber and silica sand were replaced with 10% fly ash, 25% PET fiber, and 10% recycled aggregate based on preliminary experimental results for the development of 2SHCC material, respectively. The dynamic modulus of elasticity and weight for 2SHCC material were measured at every 30 cycles of freeze-thaw. The effects of freeze-thaw cycles on the mechanical properties of sustainable SHCC are evaluated by conducting compressive tests, four-point flexural tests, direct tensile tests and prism splitting tests after 90, 180, and 300 cycles of rapid freeze-thaw. Freeze-thaw testing was conducted according to ASTM C 666 Procedure A. Test results show that after 300 cycles of freezing and thawing actions, the dynamic modulus of elasticity and mass loss of damaged 2SHCC were similar to those of virgin 2SHCC, while the freeze-thaw cycles influence mechanical properties of the 2SHCC material except for compressive behavior.