The effects of environmental conditioning and self-healing on the transport and mechanical property of engineered cementitious composites at early ages
Autogenous recovery of mechanical properties and transport properties of ECC at early-ages under different environmental conditioning is reported in this paper. The mechanical properties studied include dynamic modulus, tensile stiffness, strength and ductility. The transport properties studied include water permeability and chloride diffusivity. The chemical make-up and physical properties, self-controlled tight crack width and high tensile ductility in particular, of ECC makes self-healing prevails in a variety of environmental conditions, include water permeation and submersion, environmental temperature, wetting and drying cycles. It is demonstrated by microstructure observation that self-healing of pre-damaged composite takes place automatically at cracked locations without external intervention. The establishment of self-healing in ECC can improve the long termductility and durability of civil engineering structures after cracking.