Mechanical Properties of Engineered Cementitious Composite with Palm Oil Fuel Ash as a Supplementary Binder

Abstract

Palm oil fuel ash (POFA) was used to produce engineered cementitious composite (ECC) in this research where ECC mixtures containing different volume of POFA (up to 55% by weight) of cement, were prepared. Mechanical properties of the resulting ECC mixtures were assessed using the compression, flexural and uniaxial tensile tests. The findings of the study show that the use of POFA improves the mechanical properties of the ECCs. The ECC mix with 1.2 POFA/cement ratio achieved a compressive strength of 30 MPa at 28 days, which is within the normal range of concrete strength for many applications. Moreover, the results portray that the use of POFA should be helpful for achieving strain-hardening behaviour. The increase in the POFA content concomitantly increased the flexural deflection and tensile strain capacities of the POFA-ECC. Furthermore, crack width of the ECC was significantly decreased with an increase of POFA content. In addition, the resulting POFA-ECC is expected to enhance the material greenness and durability.