This book captures the state of the art of the durability of fibre-reinforced strain-hardening cement-based composites (SHCC) and the durability of structures or structural elements manufactured in full or in part with this class of modern construction materials. Highlights include: - Reflection on durability performance of existing applications in patch repair, a water reservoir and highway bridges. - Guidelines for tensile testing towards durability assessment of cracked SHCC. - New crack pattern related ingress rate indices for water and chloride into cracked SHCC. - The influence of low and high temperatures on SHCC durability performance. - The mechanism of crack control reducing ASR and corrosion rate, and results on chloride-induced corrosion of embedded steel reinforcement. - Self-healing of cracks in SHCC. - A conceptual durability design framework for SHCC and R/SHCC structures and members.

This is the proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Strain-Hardening Cement-Based Composites (SHCC4), that was held at the Technische Universität Dresden, Germany from 18 to 20 September 2017. The conference focused on advanced fiber-reinforced concrete materials such as strain-hardening cement-based composites (SHCC), textile-reinforced concrete (TRC) and high-performance fiber-reinforced cement-based composites (HPFRCC). All these new materials exhibit pseudo-ductile behavior resulting from the formation of multiple, fine cracks when subject to tensile loading. The use of such types of fiber-reinforced concrete could revolutionize the planning, development, dimensioning, structural and architectural design, construction of new and strengthening and repair of existing buildings and structures in many areas of application. The SHCC4 Conference was the follow-up of three previous successful international events in Stellenbosch, South Africa in 2009, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2011, and Dordrecht, The Netherlands in 2014.

This volume gathers the latest advances, innovations, and applications in the field of cementitious composites. It covers advanced fiber-reinforced concrete materials such as strain-hardening cement-based composites (SHCC), textile-reinforced concrete (TRC) and high-performance fiber-reinforced cement-based composites (HPFRCC). All these new materials exhibit pseudo-ductile behavior resulting from the formation of multiple, fine cracks when subject to tensile loading. The use of such types of fiber-reinforced concrete could revolutionize the planning, development, dimensioning, structural and architectural design, construction of new and strengthening and repair of existing buildings and structures in many areas of application. The contents reflect the outcomes of the activities of SHCC5 (International RILEM Workshop on Strain Hardening Cementitious Composites) in 2022.

Strain-Hardening Fibre-Reinforced Cement-Based Composites (SHCC) were named after their ability to resist increased tensile force after crack formation, over a significant tensile deformation range. The increased resistance is achieved through effective crack bridging by fibres, across multiple cracks of widths in the micro-range. Whether these small crack widths are maintained under sustained, cyclic or other load paths, and whether the crack width limitation translates into durability through retardation of ingress of moisture, gas and other deleterious matter, are scrutinized in this book by evaluation of test results from several laboratories internationally. The durability of SHCC under mechanical, chemical, thermal and combined actions is considered, both for the composite and the fibre types typically used in SHCC. The compilation of this state-of-the-art report has been an activity of the RILEM TC 208-HFC, Subcommittee 2: Durability, during the committee life 2005-2009.

Self-healing materials are man-made materials which have the built-in capability to repair damage. Failure in materials is often caused by the occurrence of small microcracks throughout the material. In self-healing materials phenomena are triggered to counteract these microcracks. These processes are ideally triggered by the occurrence of damage itself. Thus far, the self-healing capacity of cement-based materials has been considered as something "extra". This could be called passive self-healing, since it was not a designed feature of the material, but an inherent property of it. Centuries-old buildings have been said to have survived these centuries because of the inherent self-healing capacity of the binders used for cementing building blocks together. In this State-of-the-Art Report a closer look is taken at self-healing phenomena in cement-based materials. It is shown what options are available to design for this effect rather than have it occur as a "coincidental extra".

This volume highlights the latest advances, innovations, and applications in the field of fibre reinforced concrete (FRC) and discusses a diverse range of topics concerning FRC: rheology and early-age properties, mechanical properties, codes and standards, long-term properties, durability, analytical and numerical models, quality control, structural and Industrial applications, smart FRC’s, nanotechnologies related to FRC, textile reinforced concrete, structural design and UHPFRC. The contributions present improved traditional and new ideas that will open novel research directions and foster multidisciplinary collaboration between different specialists. Although the symposium was postponed, the book gathers peer-reviewed papers selected in 2020 for the RILEM-fib International Symposium on Fibre Reinforced Concrete (BEFIB).

Polymer-based fibre-reinforced composites FRC's have now come out as a major class of structural materials being used or regarded as substituent's for metals in several critical components in space, automotive and other industries (marine, and sports goods) owing to their low density, strength-weight ratio, and fatigue strength. FRC's have several commercial as well as industrial applications ranging from aircraft, space, automotive, sporting goods, marine, and infrastructure. The above-mentioned applications of FRC's clearly reveal that FRC's have the potential to be used in a broad range of different engineering fields with the added advantages of low density, and resistance to corrosion compared to conventional metallic and ceramic composites. However, for scientists/researchers/R&D's to fabricate FRC's with such potential there should be careful and precise design followed by suitable process development based on properties like mechanical, physical, and thermal that are unique to each application. Hence the last few decades have witnessed considerable research on fibre reinforced composites. Fibre Reinforced Composites: Constituents, Compatibility, Perspectives and Applications presents a widespread all-inclusive review on fibre-reinforced composites ranging from the different types of processing techniques to chemical modification of the fibre surface to enhance the interfacial adhesion between the matrix and fibre and the structure-property relationship. It illustrates how high value composites can be produced by efficient and sustainable processing methods by selecting different constituents [fibres and resins]. Researchers in academia working in composites and accompanying areas [materials characterisation] and industrial manufacturers who need information on composite constituents and how they relate to each other for a certain application will find the book extremely useful when they need to make decisions about materials selection for their products. - Focuses on the different types of FRC's that are currently available (e.g. from polymeric matrices to metallic and ceramic matrices, from carbon fibre to different types of natural fibres and from short to long fibre reinforced), their processing techniques, characterization of different properties, and how to improve the interfacial adhesion between an incompatible fibre and matrix and their applications - Looks at crisis areas such as how to incorporate incompatible fibres and matrices together (e.g. Non-polar polypropylene matrix is not compatible with that of polar natural fibres and hence suitable surface modifications are required to make them compatible with each other) along with low cost processing methods, low density and high strength - Uncovers clarifications to both elementary and practical problems related to the fabrication of FRCs - Schematic representations depicting the interaction between different fibre types and matrices will be provided in some chapters

This is the first book on Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC), an advanced concrete material attracting world-wide attention in both the academic community and in industry. The book presents a comprehensive coverage of the material design methodology, processing methodology, mechanical and durability properties, smart functions, and application case studies. It combines effective use of illustrations, graphical data, and tables. It de-emphasizes mathematics in favor of physical understanding. The book serves as an introduction to the subject matter, or as a reference to those conducting research in ECC. It will also be valuable to engineers who need to quickly search for relevant information in a single comprehensive text.

Strain Hardening Cement Composites, SHCC hereafter, demonstrate excellent mechanical behavior showing tensile strain hardening and multiple fine cracks. This strain hardening behavior improves the durability of concrete structures employing SHCC and the multiple fine cracks enhance structural performance. Reliable tensile performance of SHCC enables us to design structures explicitly accounting for SHCC’s tensile properties. Reinforced SHCC elements (R/SHCC) indicate large energy absorbing performance under large seismic excitation. Against various types of loads, R/SHCC elements can be designed by superimposing re-bar performance and SHCC’s tensile performance. This report focuses on flexural design, shear design, FE modeling and anti-seismic design of R/SHCC elements as well as application examples. Establishing design methods for new materials usually leads to exploring application areas and this trend should be demonstrated by collecting actual application examples of SHCC in structures.

This Proceedings contains the papers of the fib Symposium “CONCRETE Innovations in Materials, Design and Structures”, which was held in May 2019 in Kraków, Poland. This annual symposium was co-organised by the Cracow University of Technology. The topics covered include Analysis and Design, Sustainability, Durability, Structures, Materials, and Prefabrication. The fib, Fédération internationale du béton, is a not-for-profit association formed by 45 national member groups and approximately 1000 corporate and individual members. The fib’s mission is to develop at an international level the study of scientific and practical matters capable of advancing the technical, economic, aesthetic and environmental performance of concrete construction. The fib, was formed in 1998 by the merger of the Euro-International Committee for Concrete (the CEB) and the International Federation for Prestressing (the FIP). These predecessor organizations existed independently since 1953 and 1952, respectively.