Influence of treated palm oil fuel ash on compressive properties and chloride resistance of engineered cementitious composites

The influence of palm oil fuel ash (POFA) inclusion on the compressive properties and chloride resistance of engineered cementitious composites (ECC) were experimentally investigated. In the material development, pozzolanic reactivity of POFA, direct tensile test and matrix fracture test were performed for evaluating the performance of ECC with POFA. Different ECC mixes with varying POFA content and water–binder ratios were used. The results show that the use of POFA should be helpful for achieving strain-hardening behavior by enhancing the fracture toughness and interfacial bond between matrix and PVA fiber. Moreover, at 28 and 90 days, increasing the POFA/cement ratio up to 0.2 led to an increase in the compressive strength of the ECC. 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. In addition, the test results show that mechanically pre-loaded POFA–ECC specimens exposed to chloride solution remain durable. The results also indicated strong evidence of self-healing of micro-cracked POFA–ECC specimens, which can still carry considerable flexural load. The rapid chloride permeability test reveal that the total charge passed was gradually reduced with the inclusion of higher amount of POFA. The results presented in this study provide a preliminary database for the durability of cracked and uncracked POFA–ECCs under chloride environment or/and combined mechanical loading.