Construction and Building Materials 174 (2018) 594–602

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Construction and Building Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat

Experimental investigation of textile reinforced engineered cementitious

composite (ECC) for square concrete column confinement
Ali N. AL-Gemeel, Yan Zhuge ⇑
School of Natural and Built Environments, University of South Australia, SA 5095, Australia

h i g h l i g h t s

 Basalt fibre textile reinforced ECC was applied to strengthen square concrete column.
 ECC bonded well to the substrate concrete, no debonding failure was observed.
 ECC is more efficient as a confining material compared to the normal cement mortar.
 Both axial and absolute lateral strain were increased due to the use of ECC.
 The load carrying capacity and ductility of confined column are effectively improved.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Confining concrete elements with fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) is proven to be an efficient technique in
Received 4 May 2017 improving the dilation and axial performance of concrete columns. However, its effectiveness is reduced
Received in revised form 17 April 2018 significantly for non-circular columns. In addition, a few drawbacks of using FRP, such as brittleness of
Accepted 20 April 2018
FRP sheet and poor performance of the epoxy resins at high or low temperatures, have been found in
recently year. This paper presents a feasibility investigation of a newly developed strengthening system,
basalt fibre textile reinforced engineered cementitious composite (ECC). Three types of basalt fibre textile
were used, in combination with ECC to confine square concrete columns. The experimental results
revealed that the new strengthening system has significantly enhanced the load carrying capacity and
ductility of square concrete columns compared to the unconfined specimens and the specimens confined
with textile reinforced mortars (TRM); the axial compressive strength increased in the range of 54%–77%
for the new strengthening system compared to 41% for the TRM system. The results also shown that ECC
itself could be used as a new retrofitting material in column confinement.
Ó 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction shape modification technique by mounting concrete bolsters to

Confining concrete elements with fibre reinforced polymer
(FRP) laterally is proven to be an efficient technique in improving
the dilation and axial performance of concrete columns signifi-
cantly, where the high ductility and strength are essential to with-
stand severe actions such as impact explosions and earthquake.
However, if the cross section of the existing concrete column has
a rectangular or square shape, the efficiency of confinement
reduced significantly [1,2]. To improve the effectiveness of confine-
ment layer for noncircular cross section concrete column, cross
section modification was considered as an effective technique in
which the cross section shape was modified from square or rectan-
gle to a circular shape before being confined by FRP jacketing [3]. A
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: yan.zhuge@unisa.edu.au (Y. Zhuge).
change the column shape to elliptical or circular before FRP wrap-
ping was developed by [4]. A similar technique using segmental
circular concrete covers mounted on four straight faces of a square
column and wrapping with FRP was reported by [5]. Confining
rectangular and square concrete columns using post-tensioned
FRP composite shells with expansive cement concrete was investi-
gated by [6]. These techniques proved to be effective in improving
shear strength, lap-slice behaviour and axial performance of con-
fined square and rectangle concrete columns.
In spite of the advantages of using FRP wrapping techniques, the
system has a few drawbacks. For example: (a) Poor behaviour of
epoxy resins at either very high or very low temperatures [7]; (b)
Inapplicability on wet or damped surfaces [8]; (c) Organic polymer
rubble can be classified as a hazardous material with poor informa-
tion being established on disposal; (d) High cost of epoxy resins
and FRP [9]; (e) Insufficiency of vapour permeability was proven

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2018.04.161
0950-0618/Ó 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 A.N. AL-Gemeel, Y. Zhuge / Construction and Building Materials 174 (2018) 594–602
to cause concrete damage with the use of organic resins [7]; (f)
Shape modification technique is labour intensive.
To remedy these issues, research has been carried out by replac-
ing organic resins with inorganic material such as cement mortar.
However, it was found that due to mortar granularity, fibre sheet
impregnation and penetration were difficult to achieve [7]. Fibre
paste interaction and bond conditions of cementitious composite
could be enhanced when textile fibre is used as an alternative
material to continuous FRP sheet [8]. This system includes textile
fibre which is basically made from long knitted or non-knitted
fibre impregnated in inorganic cement based mortar matrix. This
combination results in an alternative strengthening system to
FRP called textile reinforced mortar (TRM) [9–13]. In addition to
use FRP textile, basalt fibre textile was found to give interesting
features for TRM system [14]. Applying such material in the field
of upgrading concrete elements has been the target for some
research in recent years such as [14,15].
Basalt is a natural material found in volcanic rock with high
melting point of 1400 °C and high alkali resistance [14]. Basalt fibre
had an elastic modulus higher than E-glass fibres and cheaper than
carbon fibres. Research on using basalt fibre as environmentally
friendly grids to reinforce inorganic matrix was very limited
[14,15]. Basalt fibre textile with spacing 25 * 25 mm was used to
confine concrete column with diffident types of mortar [15]. The
testing results revealed that this confinement technique achieved
good improvement in terms of ultimate strength and correspond-
ing strain, TRM with cement mortar achieved higher ultimate
strength than those with pozzolanic mortar. Similar research was
carried out by [14], where basalt grid was impregnated in epoxy
resin before being used with cement mortar to laterally confine cir-
cular concrete columns for rehabilitation. It was recommended by
[14] that basalt grid with cement mortar could be used as an alter-
native system to overcome the limitation of resin-based FRP con-
finement. From these research works, TRM confining system
seems a promising alternative to conventional FRP confinement.
However, the low tensile strength of mortar caused debonding fail-
ure of the system and the confinement was less effective than FRP
jacketing due to such failure [8].
The innovation of engineered cementitious composite (ECC) is
an interesting inorganic based cementitious material which could
be possibly used for column confinement either alone or as part
of a TRM system based on its mechanical properties. ECC is a high
performance fibre reinforced cementitious (FRC) material incorpo-
rating discrete PVA fibres (with a typical volume fraction of about
2%). ECC is a unique type of cement mixture that exhibited superior
tensile strain-hardening compared to normal FRC with strain
capacity in the range of 3–7%. ECC also has other good features
such as: multiple micro cracking and high energy absorb capacity
[16,17]. Many investigations have been carried out on the struc-
tural performance and mechanical properties of ECC under seismic,
high and low velocity impact loads, and fatigue load [17–20]. It
was found that ECC could also be used for structural rehabilitation,
such as acting as a rendering layer for masonry walls under impact
or seismic loads [21,22]. This paper presents a feasibility investiga-
tion of a newly developed strengthening system, basalt fibre textile
reinforced ECC. Three types of basalt fibre textile were used, in
combination with ECC to confine square concrete columns. Basalt
fibre textile reinforced with normal cement mortar was also used
to compare with those used ECC. The experimental results revealed
Table 1
Fibre specification.
Fibre Tensile strength (MPa) Young’s modulus (GPa)
PVA 1600 66
595
that the new system has more effectively enhanced the load carry-
ing capacity and ductility of square concrete columns compared to
the TRM technique. The results also shown that ECC itself could be
used as a new retrofitting material in column confinement. The
failure modes, ductility, stress-strain behaviour, and effectiveness
of the confinement were also discussed in the paper.
2. Experimental program
2.1. Materials
The existing square concrete columns were built from concrete
batch provided by a local supplier (Easy Mix), and it was formu-
lated for easy trowelling and finishing. The average target 28 days
compressive strength was 17 MPa. Low strength concrete was cho-
sen on purpose.
ECC material utilised in this paper was based on the design of
ECC_M45 mix [16]. ECC was made from ordinary Portland cement,
fly ash, fine sand and discrete low modulus Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)
fibre. The fine sand was supplied by a local supplier with the max-
imum size of 0.5 mm and the fly ash was supplied by Cement Aus-
tralia to improve the flow of the mix and also to stabilize the mix.
The geometric specifications of PVA fibre are presented in Table 1.
The fibre volume fraction of 2% has been chosen to achieve the
strain-hardening of the material as well as to improve the ductility
and decrease cracking under increased load. The material propor-
tions of cement based mortar and ECC are listed in Table 2, same
mix design was used except 2% PVA fibre was added to ECC mix.
The strength of the mortar was 46 MPa with the density of
2096.3 kg/m3; the compressive strength and density of ECC were
65 MPa and 2107 kg/m3 respectively.
The ECC mixing commenced with a dry mix of solid con-
stituents for more than two minutes in a 100-liter planetary rotat-
ing mixer. About 10% of the total water was mixed first with the
superplasticizer and then added into the mixture before adding
the remaining water. The mixing then continued for about five
minutes. The PVA fibres were then added gradually to the matrix
to make sure that it would be a rationalistic dispersion in the mix-
ture. All constituents were continuously mixed for 10–15 min until
all fibres were dispersed and disappeared into the matrix.
The Basalt fibre textile was provided by the Jiangsu GMV New
Material Science Ltd, China. Three different types of basalt fibres
textile were used as shown in Fig. 1: 50 * 50 mm; 25 * 25 mm
and 10 * 10 mm. Each type has a different number of continuous
fibres woven or unwoven per yarn, knitting procedure, and a sur-
face coating process. The mechanical properties of the basalt fibres
which were provided by the manufacturer are shown in Table 3.
The 25 * 25 mm and 10 * 10 mm textile comprised equal quantity
of high-strength basalt fibres in two orthogonal directions, while
the 50 * 50 mm grid had lower quantity in vertical direction.
Table 2
Material proportions.
Mix Cement Sand Fly ash Water Super PVA% volume
plasticizer
ECC 1 0.8 1.2 0.58 0.0055 2
Mortar 1 0.8 1.2 0.58 0.0055 –
Diameter (mm) Length (mm) Specific Gravity Shape
39 8 1.3 Straight
596 A.N. AL-Gemeel, Y. Zhuge / Construction and Building Materials 174 (2018) 594–602

Basalt fibre
texle 50

Basalt fibre
texle 25

Basalt fibre
texle 10

Fig. 1. Basalt fibre mesh types.

Table 3
The properties of basalt fibres. Fig. 3. Confined column details (dimensions in mm).
Basalt type Space mm Weight g/m2 Tensile strength N/mm2
Basalt fibre textile 10 10  10 125 48.6
Basalt fibre textile 25 25  25 120 658.7
a uniform gap between the interior circumference of the mould
Basalt fibre textile 50 50  50 210 1166.2
and the column corner which is designed to have a distance of
7.6 mm as shown in Fig. 3. The specimens were then demoulded
and stored in curing pool until being tested after 28 days.
2.2. Confining procedure and design of specimens
The gap between the square specimen faces and the circular
mould was filled by mortar or ECC fresh material as shown
Eighteen identical square concrete columns with a cross section
Fig. 4c. Basalt fibre textiles were used as an interior reinforcement
area of 60 * 60 mm2 and a length of 200 mm were casted as shown
for ECC. In the basalt fibre textile, an overlap of 120 mm was
in Fig. 2. The square columns were designed as short column with a
applied to avoid a premature debonding failure, and cable ties
slenderness ratio of 11.5 to ensure compression failure. The slen-
were used to support the overlaps. The basalt fibre textile rein-
derness ratio was reduced slightly with shape modification and
forcement was placed into the gap between the circular mould
the effect was negligible in this study. As the paper intents to pre-
and the exiting square concrete column, then the fresh ECC or mor-
sent a feasibility investigation of a newly developed strengthening
tar was poured with continuously shaking using a rubber hummer
system, basalt fibre textile reinforced ECC, small sized samples
to eliminate any bubbles in the matrix. Fig. 4 shows the steps of
were used to compare the effectiveness of three confining meth-
application the confining system developed by this research.
ods. The performance of large sized samples will be assessed after
The specimens were classified into six groups, three samples for
positive results from small sample testing. The size effect in FRP-
each group. The first group was considered as a control group
wrapped concrete columns was investigated by [23,24]. It was
(Group C). The specimens of second group (CC-E) were strength-
found that the size effect was pronounced for unconfined concrete.
ened with only ECC as shape modification. Groups three to five,
However, in FRP wrapped concrete cylinders, with the same con-
were wrapped with a layer of basalt fibre textile of different spac-
finement ratio, no significant variations occur in both compressive
ing: 25 (CC-EB25), 50 (CC-EB50) and 10 mm (CC-EB10), and
strength and ultimate strain when different sizes of FRP-confined
bonded with ECC. The sixth group (CC-MB25), was similar to group
concrete cylinders were used.
3, where the specimens were wrapped with a layer of basalt textile
All specimens were stored in curing pool for 14 days before
of 25 mm space, but bonded with cement mortar. All confined col-
cross section modification and confined by textile reinforced sys-
umns have a cross section of 100 mm in diameter and 200 mm in
tem. Standard cylindrical moulds with the diameter of 100 mm
height.
and height of 200 mm were adopted to cast the confinement layer
Table 4 shows the details of specimen in each group.
and convert the column cross section from square to circular
shape. The square columns were installed vertically inside the
2.3. Characterization of the confining materials
mould and adjusted to become in the centre of the mould to get

To determine the mechanical properties of the confining sys-

tem, both compressive and tensile (hoop) strength testing were
conducted. Five groups (refer Table 5) of circular tubes made by
ECC or cement mortar and basalt fibre textile with the dimensions
of 68 mm inner diameter, 100 mm outer diameter, and 200 mm in
height were tested under axial compressive load as shown Fig. 5a.
Apparent hoop tensile strength (AHT) test was conducted to eval-
uate the tensile properties in hoop direction of the confinement
layers. This test was performed in accordance with ASTM D-
2290-08 [25]. As suggested by Shaia [26], AHT was a preferred
method to evaluate the tensile strength of the confinement layer
over the conventional coupon test. AHT test was carried out on ring
specimens with the dimensions of 110 mm inner diameter, 20 mm
thickness and 50 mm in height, to determine the tensile strength of
Fig. 2. Short concrete columns. the confining system. A universal testing machine with a loading
 A.N. AL-Gemeel, Y. Zhuge / Construction and Building Materials 174 (2018) 594–602 597

(a) basalt fibre textile preparation (b) adjusting basalt fibre textile with column

(c) casting bond paste

Fig. 4. Confining steps.

Table 4
Details of the experimental specimens.

Group Core Confinement layer Note

Confinement paste Basalt textile
C Concrete column (60 * 60 mm) No No Control group (3)specimens
CC-E Concrete column (60 * 60 mm) ECC No (3)specimens
CC-EB25 Concrete column (60 * 60 mm) ECC Basalt textile 25 >120 mm overlap- one layer-(3)specimens
CC-EB50 Concrete column (60 * 60 mm) ECC Basalt textile 50 >120 mm overlap- one layer-(3)specimens
CC-EB10 Concrete column (60 * 60 mm) ECC Basalt textile 10 >120 mm overlap- one layer-(3)specimens
CC-MB25 Concrete column (60 * 60 mm) Cement mortar Basalt textile 25 >120 mm overlap- one layer-(3)specimens

Table 5
Material characterisation of the confining materials.

Group Confinement layer Av. unit mass (kg/m3) Compressive strength (r) (MPa) Tensile strength (fr) (MPa)
CC-E ECC 2006.6 34.4 1.83
Std. 1.74 1.8 0.06
CC-EB25 ECC + basalt textile 25 2052.8 24.7 3.7
Std. 3.86 1.06 0.10
CC-EB50 ECC + basalt textile 50 1877.6 28.8 3.01
Std. 1.53 1.04 0.32
CC-EB10 ECC + basalt textile 10 2073.8 28.1 2.8
Std. 2.36 0.87 0.49
CC-MB25 Cement mortar + basalt textile 25 2092 21.6 1.06
Std. 1.04 1.49 0.02

capacity of 100 kN was used to determine the compressive
strength of the confining materials. A constant load rate of 0.2
MPa/s according to ASTM C39 was applied to all testing specimens.
MTS machine with a loading capacity of 100 kN was used to deter-
mine the tensile strength of the confining materials as shown in
Fig. 5b. The machine was operated under displacement control
with a loading rate of 2.5 mm/min in accordance with ASTM D-
2290-08 [25]. Each test was performed on three specimens for each
group, the group details and the experimental results are shown in
Table 5.
2.4. Test setup and instrumentation
All specimens were tested according to the ASTM standards.
The compressive strength testing was carried out using a universal
testing machine with a loading capacity of 100 kN. A constant load-
ing rate of 0.2 MPa/s was applied to all specimens until failure as
shown in Fig. 6. The specimens’ top surface was levelled using sand
cut to make sure the specimen was uniformly loaded. The dimen-
sion and weight of each specimen were measured and the density
was determined. For each confined column, four strain gauges
598 A.N. AL-Gemeel, Y. Zhuge / Construction and Building Materials 174 (2018) 594–602
(a) Specimens for compressive test
Fig. 5. Testing set-up for confining materials.
Fig. 6. Axial compression test.
were mounted at the mid height of the column. Two gauges were
aligned along the axial direction 180⁰ apart to measure the axial
strain, and two gauges were aligned along the hoop direction and
placed 180⁰ apart to measure the hoop strain as shown in Fig. 7.
A laser sensor was mounted along the axial direction to measure
the total displacement. All the data were recorded using a data
acquisition system.
3. Experimental results and discussion
3.1. Confinement effectiveness of different confining systems
The results of average axial strength from three tested speci-
mens of each group are listed in Table 6.
Where fco and fcc are the ultimate axial strength of the uncon-
fined (square column) and confined specimens respectively; eco
and ecc are the axial stain at the corresponding ultimate axial
strength fco and fcc respectively; and the ratio of fcc/fco is the con-
finement effectiveness of the confined concrete square column. eh
is the hoop strain at the corresponding maximum strength.
Table 6 indicates that confinement effectiveness of columns
confined by textile reinforced mortar group (CC-MB25) is 1.41;
whereas, the ratio is 1.93 for columns confined with ECC material,
which is the highest effectiveness recorded in this experimental
(b) Apparent hoop tensile test
Fig. 7. Arrangement of strain gauges.
study. The average confinement effectiveness varies from 1.54 to
1.77 for groups with basalt fibre textile of different spacing,
whereas 25 * 25 mm achieved the best result. The results indicate
that using ECC, which contains PVA fibre, leads to a highest con-
finement effectiveness level and the easiest confinement proce-
dure. Group CC-EB25 (ECC + basalt fibre textile spacing of 25
mm) achieved the 2nd best results for confinement effectiveness.
The increase of ultimate load for groups CC-EB50 and CC-EB10
was smaller than that of group CC-EB25, confirming that 50 mm
and 10 mm basalt fibre confinement were less effective than using
25 mm basalt fibre. Due to very low tensile strength of 10 mm
basalt textile (Table 3), it is not suitable as a structural element
for column confinement. Although 50 mm basalt textile had a
higher tensile strength than 25 mm textile, it was found that 50
mm basalt textile was too stiff and not suitable to be used as
TRM as some textiles were damaged during the preparation of
the specimens.
The testing results indicate that the innovative confinement
systems developed by this paper achieved superior performance
compared to the traditional TRM technique (CC-MB25) due to
the high ductility of ECC.
3.2. Stress – strain behaviour
The axial and hoop strains of each group at the peak load are
shown in Table 6, where the strain values were averaged from
two strain gauges. As it can be seen from Table 6, the group using
ECC only (CC-E), achieved the highest increase in axial strain of
440% compared to 85% of TRM group. Other groups using basalt
fibre textile with ECC instead of cement mortar also achieved an
excellent performance compared to TRM group, for example, group
CC-EB25 achieved an increase in axial strain of 387%. In the hoop
direction, CC-EB25 achieved an increase of 637% compared to
 A.N. AL-Gemeel, Y. Zhuge / Construction and Building Materials 174 (2018) 594–602 599

Table 6
Average confinement effectiveness results of tested specimens.

Group eco (mm/m) ecc (mm/m) eh (mm/m) fco (MPa) fcc (MPa) fcc/fco ecc/eco
C 576 / 118 20.2 / / /
Std 95.6 / 22.25 0.49 / / /
CC-E / 3090.9 1027.8 / 38.9 1.93 5.4
Std. 38.51 69.08 0.83 0.04 0.07
CC-EB25 / 2807.1 870.9 / 35.8 1.77 4.9
Std. 113.80 59.12 1.32 0.07 0.19
CC-EB50 / 2117.9 575.4 / 32.2 1.59 3.7
Std. 79.20 64.59 0.42 0.02 0.014
CC-EB10 / 2662.1 1222.5 / 31.2 1.54 4.6
Std. 99.19 88.01 1.52 0.08 0.17
CC-MB25 / 1067.2 195.7 / 28.5 1.41 1.9
Std. 106.75 22.80 0.60 0.03 0.19

TRM group of only 65.85%, indicating the effective bridging action
provided by PVA fibre.
The axial and hoop stress strain diagrams for each group are
displayed in Fig. 8, where the hoop strain (tensile strain) are
defined as negative and the axial strain (compressive strain) are
defined as positive same as Teng and Lam [27]. As shown in
Fig. 8e, the TRM group followed the typical bilinear behaviour
and the ascending branch was nearly the same as that for uncon-
fined column, similar behaviour was reported in the literature [7]
which indicated that the existing concrete column carrying the
load until it cracked. Due to the low tensile strength of mortar
and the subsequent debonding failure, the high tensile strength
of basalt fibre could not be fully utilized, indicating the effect of
confinement was limited for these samples. The control group
did not have the second linear region, but followed a descending
branch, indicating a brittle failure. However, the diagrams with
ECC confinement are rather different. It showed a much ductile
behaviour, characterized by a short ascending branch, followed
by a large strain hardening region, before final failure. This notable
difference in the stress strain diagrams was attributed to the differ-
ent performance of mortar and ECC, ECC and textile reinforced ECC
specimens shared the load with existing concrete column from
beginning. Due to the low stiffness but high deformation capability
of ECC, multi-cracks instead of a single crack formed at early stage
before final failure due to rupturing of the basalt fibre textile.
Cracks did not concentrate locally but rather distributed evenly
over the column, therefore to release stress concentration due to
its large deformation capability and prevent the spalling of existing
concrete column. The effectiveness of confinement was largely
increased.
The strain in hoop direction for specimens confined by ECC was
considerably increased and the stress was significantly higher
compared with the control specimens and specimens confined by
TRM.
Fig. 8 also shown that each group has a different ascending
trend slope. The difference in slope demonstrates that compressive
strength of paste used in confinement layer influences the defor-
mation behaviour of confined columns effectively. The lower com-
pressive strength of the confining matrix, the lower ascending
trend slope in stress-strain curves was observed. In addition,
regarding the textile reinforced ECC confinement, group CC-EB25
showed a more consistent performance and sustained greater load
at peak point than group CC-EB50 and CC-EB10. This can be attrib-
uted to the workability of basalt fibre used in that group.
3.3. Ductility
The ratio of the axial strain of confined columns to that of
unconfined columns is considered to determine the ductility of
confined concrete columns in this paper, same as those reported
in [28]. The ductility could also be evaluated in terms of the ratio
of the deflection of 85% peak load to that of the yield load. The chal-
lenge in this method was how precisely evaluate the yield load.
Table 6 column (9) shows that the confined concrete columns
had a significantly increased ductility. The strain ratio (ductility)
of specimens in group CC-MB25 was 1.9; much smaller than that
of CC-EB25 by 2.5 times due to the effect of using ECC material.
The highest ductility reached was that for CC-E group of 5.4. The
ductility of group CC-EB50 and CC-EB10 recorded was 3.7 and
4.6 respectively.
Basalt fibre acquired normal cement mortar achieved a good
ductility compared to the control specimens. However, using ECC
(group CC-E) confinement where small discrete fibre (PVA) was
used led to a significant ductility. Using basalt fibre textile rein-
forced ECC also led to a significant increase in the ductility com-
pared to TRM, but less than using ECC only. This performance
demonstrates that combining ECC with basalt fibre textile as a con-
finement material decreased the efficiency of ECC as a ductile
material. This was due to the micromechanical properties of ECC
that create a bridging action were affected by the implementation
of basalt fibre textile.
3.4. Failure modes
For the control specimens (square column), cracks initiated and
progressed at different sections on the specimens as load
increased. The specimens failed in brittle manner at the peak load.
In general, the failure pattern of ECC or fibre textile reinforced
ECC/mortar confined column was different to FRP confined column
where cracks developed in the hoop direction. As shown in Fig. 9,
cracks developed in the vertical direction for all confined
specimens.
For columns confined by ECC, multiple tiny hair cracks were
noticed in the mid-height of column. The cracks propagated in dif-
ferent directions and became more notable on the sharp age of the
core due to the small thickness of the material. Failure occurred
due the slippage of the PVA fibre out of the paste. Fig. 9a shows
the failure pattern of the group CC-E specimens.
The failure of existing concrete column was also observed; this
was achieved after removing the confinement layer at the end of
the testing. The failure was concentrated at the middle height of
the cores; however, the specimen was still held together due to
the confinement layer as shown in Fig. 10. The discrete PVA fibres
were efficient in restricting the propagation of the cracks and for-
mation of a major crack of the column.
Failure of specimens confined by basalt fibre textile reinforced
ECC was shown in Fig. 9b–d. Hair cracks were observed creating
at the mid-height of the specimens and propagating in vertical
600 A.N. AL-Gemeel, Y. Zhuge / Construction and Building Materials 174 (2018) 594–602

a C and CC-E groups b C and CC-EB25 groups

c C and CC-EB50 groups d C and CC-EB10 groups

e C and CC-MB25 groups

Fig. 8. Axial stress-strain diagram of testing specimens.

direction towards the specimens ends. Growth of almost one crack
was observed and it was located on one of the sharp edges of the
core. The failure was noticed when the basalt fibre textile fractured
in the hoop direction. In group CC-EB25, tiny cracks were also
observed in different direction as shown in Fig. 9b that might prob-
ably lead to the specimen to sustain greater load compared to
group CC-EB50 and CC-EB10 as shown in Fig. 9c and d.
For the specimens confined by TRM (CC-MB25), cracks also
developed in the vertical direction (Fig. 9e). Failure of the mortar
was noticed by delaminating of the fragments before reaching
the peak strength. A limited number of basalt fibres ruptured in
the hoop direction and soon resulted in more fibres ruptured and
the failure of the specimens.
3.5. Comparing the performance of ECC and mortar
Fig. 11 displays a comparison of the stress-strain diagrams for
the specimens confined with basalt fibre textile reinforced with
normal mortar and ECC.
The matrix used to bond basalt fibre textile was important in
textile retrofitting system due to the interaction between materials
and bond condition which can be provided by the paste. Due to the
inclusion of discrete PVA fibres that provides micro-bridging
effects, ECC was proved to be an effective paste material compared
with mortar in the fibre textile reinforced system. In the case of
column confinement effectiveness, the group CC-EB25 was about
25.5% more effective than the normal mortar group CC-MB25. It
 A.N. AL-Gemeel, Y. Zhuge / Construction and Building Materials 174 (2018) 594–602
(a) CC-E (b) CC-EB25 (c) CCEB-50
Fig. 9. Failure patterns of confined columns.
Fig. 10. Failure pattern of concrete column core.
was also observed that both axial and absolute lateral strain were
increased from 1067.2 mm/m to 2807.1 mm/m and from 195.7 mm/
m to 870.9 mm/m respectively due to the use of ECC instead of nor-
mal mortar. Such behaviour could be caused by the high compres-
sive strength and ductility of ECC that led to raise the load carrying
ability.
The results also showed that group CC-E (ECC only) achieved
8.7% higher confined strength than that of group CC-EB25. The
axial strain and absolute hoop strain were increased by about
10.1% and 18% respectively compared to CC-EB25, and the ductility
was increased from 4.9 to 5.4. The confinement technique devel-
oped by this research was different to FRP confinement where only
lateral confinement was provided. For the ECC confinement (CC-E),
the high compressive strength (refer Table 5) of the ECC confine-
ment layer helped the column to carry the axial compressive force
from beginning and provided lateral confinement simultaneously,
and therefore increased the failure load of the column. The interac-
tion between basalt fibre and ECC, which damaged the unique
601
(d) CC-EB10 (e) CC-MB25
Fig. 11. Comparison of the stress strain- curves.
micromechanics design of ECC and affected bridging action of
PVA fibres caused the deficiency of using textile reinforced ECC
compared with ECC only in column confinement.
4. Conclusion
An innovative confining system using basalt fibre textile rein-
forced ECC was applied to strengthen square concrete columns.
The experimental study focused on investigating the feasibility of
using basalt fibre textile reinforced ECC to confine square concrete
columns. Cement mortar was also used to compare the confine-
ment efficiency. The following main conclusions can be drawn:
 The inorganic material, such as cement or ECC bonded well to
the substrate concrete material, no debonding failure between
concrete core and confinement layer was observed.
 Under axial load condition, the load carrying capacity and duc-
tility of square concrete column confined by ECC material were
enhanced significantly with an increase of 92.5% compared to
the unconfined specimens and specimens confined by tradi-
tional TRM system (41% increase). This enhancement was
slightly lower for the specimens confined by fibre textile rein-
forced ECC, where the load carrying capacity was increased in
the range of 54.5%–77.2%.
602 A.N. AL-Gemeel, Y. Zhuge / Construction and Building Materials 174 (2018) 594–602
 Basalt fibre textile with spacing of 25 mm reinforced with ECC
(CC-EB25) proved to be preferable to other two types of basalt
fibre textile 50 mm and 10 mm in enhancing load carrying
capacity and ductility.
 The results have shown the efficiency of ECC as a main matrix to
bond basalt fibre textile in increase the peak strength and
deformability compared to the normal cement mortar. The
strength improvement was 25% more for fibre textile reinforced
ECC (CC-EB25) compared to fibre textile reinforced mortar (CC-
MB25). It was also observed that both axial and absolute lateral
strain were increased due to the use of ECC instead of mortar for
basalt fibre textile bond. Such behaviour could be caused by the
unique tensile strain hardening characteristic of ECC material.
 ECC only confinement has performed superior compared to
basalt fibre textile reinforced ECC. That could be explain by:
interfacial action between ECC and concrete column especially
that ECC tube has higher compressive strength than all other
confinement systems; basalt fibre textile interrupted the
micromechanics design of ECC and therefore affected the bridg-
ing action of PVA fibres; possibility of local stress concentration
caused by hand lay-up of basalt fibre textile that leading to
overstretching of basalt fibre.
 The proposed column confining technique was verified to be
effective in improving the load carrying capacity and ductility
of square concrete column. ECC or basalt fibre textile reinforced
ECC has a potential to modify and confine non-circular concrete
column with considerable improvement in both failure pattern
and load carrying capacity. The proposed technique can be con-
sidered as a new application for ECC material, and the research
is ongoing to find new natural fibre textile to be used in combi-
nation with ECC.
Conflict of interest
None declare.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the advice of Prof Thiru
Aravinthan and Prof Guoxing Lu on this research project. The
authors also thanks the Jiangsu GMV New Material Science Ltd,
China to donate the basalt fibre textile for this research. The first
author would like to thank the Iraqi government for the support
of his PhD scholarship.
References
[1] T. Ozbakkaloglu, T. Xie, Geopolymer concrete-filled FRP tubes: behavior of
circular and square columns under axial compression, Compos. B Eng. 96
(2016) 215–230.
[2] T. Ozbakkaloglu, Behavior of square and rectangular ultra high-strength
concrete-filled FRP tubes under axial compression, Compos. B Eng. 54 (2013)
97–111.
[3] T.M. Pham, L.V. Doan, M.N.S. Hadi, Strengthening square reinforced concrete
columns by circularisation and FRP confinement, Constr. Build. Mater. 49
(2013) 490–499.
[4] M.J.N. Priestley, F. Seible, Design of seismic retrofit measures for concrete and
masonry structures, Constr. Build. Mater. 9 (6) (1995) 365–377.
[5] M.N.S. Hadi, T.M. Pham, X. Lei, New method of strengthening reinforced
concrete square columns by circularizing and wrapping with fiber-reinforced
polymer or steel straps, J. Compos. Constr. 17 (2) (2013) 229–238.
[6] P. Chris, Y. Zihan, FRP jacketed and shape-modified compression members: I –
experimental behavior, Struct. J. 103 (6) (2006).
[7] C.G. Thanasis, C. Triantafillou, L. Thanasis, Concrete confinement with textile-
reinforced mortar jackets, Struct. J. 103 (1) (2006) 28–37.
[8] D.A. Bournas, P.V. Lontou, C.G. Papanicolaou, T.C. Triantafillou, Textile-
reinforced mortar versus fiber-reinforced polymer confinement in reinforced
concrete columns, ACI Struct. J. 104 (6) (2007) 740–748.
[9] T.C. Triantafillou, C.G. Papanicolau, Textile reinforced mortars (TRM) versus
fiber reinforced polymers (FRP) as strengthening materials of concrete
structures, FRPRCS 7 (2005) 99–117.
[10] U. Häußler-Combe, J. Hartig, Bond and failure mechanisms of textile reinforced
concrete (TRC) under uniaxial tensile loading, Cem. Concr. Compos. 29 (2007)
279–289.
[11] A. Keil, H. Cuypers, M. Raupach, J. Wastiels, Study of the bond in textile
reinforced concrete: influence of matrix and interface modification, FEUP,
Porto, 2008, pp. 126–127.
[12] Bournas DA, Triantafillou TC. Innovative seismic retrofitting of old-type RC
columns through jacketing: Textile-Reinforced Mortar (TRM) versus Fibre-
Reinforced Polymer (FRP). The 14th World Conference on Earthquake
Engineering, Beijing, China, 2008.
[13] J. Francisco, D.C.Y. Basalo, F. Matta, A. Nanni, Fiber reinforced cement-based
composite system for concrete confinement, Constr. Build. Mater. 32 (2012)
55–65.
[14] M.D. Ludovico, A. Prota, G. Manfredi, Structural upgrade using basalt fibers for
concrete confinement, J. Compos. Constr. 14 (5) (2010) 541–552.
[15] D. García, P. Allonso, J. San-Josi, L. Garmendia, Confinement of medium
strength concrete cylinders with basalt Textile Reinforced Mortar, ICPIC 2010–
13th International Congress on Polymers, Concrete (2010) 1–8.
[16] V.C. Li, Engineered cementitious composite (ECC): material, structural, and
durability performance, in: E.G. Nawy (Ed.), Concrete Construction
Engineering Handbook, CRC Press, Boca Raton, 2008. 24-1-24-40.
[17] K.T. Soe, Y.X. Zhang, L.C. Zhang, Impact resistance of hybrid-fiber engineered
cementitious composite panels, Compos. Struct. 104 (2013) 320–330.
[18] K.T. Soe, Y.X. Zhang, L.C. Zhang, Material properties of a new hybrid fibre-
reinforced engineered cementitious composite, Constr. Build. Mater. 43 (2013)
399–407.
[19] J. Zhang, V.C. Li, Monotonic and fatigue performance in bending of fiber-
reinforced engineered cementitious composite in overlay system, Cem. Concr.
Res. 32 (3) (2002) 415–423.
[20] A. Dehghani, G. Fischer, F. Nateghi Alahi, Strengthening masonry infill panels
using engineered cementitious composites, Mater. Struct. 48 (1–2) (2015)
185–204.
[21] K. Kesner, S.L. Billington, Development of Seismic Strengthening and Retrofit
Strategies for Critical Facilities Using Engineered Cementitious Composite
Materials, State University of New York, USA, 2005.
[22] F. Yuan, J. Pan, L. Dong, C.K.Y. Leung, Mechanical behaviors of steel reinforced
ECC or ECC/concrete composite beams under reversed cyclic loading, J. Mat.
Civil Eng. 26 (8) (2014). 04014047, 1-8.
[23] H.M. Elsanadedy, Y.A. Al-Salloum, S.H. Alsayed, R.A. Iqbal, Experimental and
numerical investigation of size effects in FRP-wrapped concrete columns,
Constr. Build. Mater. 29 (2012) 56–72.
[24] T. Ozbakkaloglu, T. Vincent, Axial compressive behavior of circular high-
strength concrete-filled FRP tubes, J. Compos. Constr. 18 (2) (2013) 04013037.
[25] ASTM, Standard test method for apparent hoop tensile strength of plastic or
reinforced plastic pipe by split disk method, ASTM D2290-08, 2012.
[26] H.A. Shaia, Behaviour of Fibre Reinforced Polymer Composite Piles:
Experimental and Numerical Study, School of Mechanical, Aerospace and
Civil Engineering, The University of Manchester, U.K, 2013.
[27] J.G. Teng, L. Lam, Compressive behavior of carbon fiber reinforced polymer-
confined concrete in elliptical columns, J. Struct. Eng. 128 (12) (2002) 1535–
1543.
[28] L. Yan, N. Chouw, Experimental study of flax FRP tube encased coir fibre
reinforced concrete composite column, Constr. Build. Mater. 40 (2013) 1118–
1127.