Experimental Investigation on the Mechanical Properties and Microstructure of Basalt Fiber Reinforced Engineered Cementitious Composite

This study investigated fundamental mechanical properties of a basalt fiber reinforced engineered cementitious composite (BF-ECC) with different volume fractions of basalt fiber (BF), water–binder ratio (W/B) and fly ash (FA) content. The compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, flexural strength and static modulus of BF-ECC were studied at 3, 28 and 56 days, respectively, to explore their development along the ages. Furthermore, the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis was conducted to evaluate the microstructure of BF-ECC. Experiment results demonstrated that bond quality between the BF and the matrix is good, which leads to a significant increase in the flexural strength and splitting tensile strength. The pozzolanic effect of FA obviously improved the splitting tensile and flexural strength of BF-ECC after 56 days of curing, and the appropriate content of the FA content in the BF-ECC ranges from 50% to 60%.