Engineered cementitious composites (ECC) show the distinguished characteristics of high post-cracking resistance and ductility. High-strength stainless steel wire rope (HSSSWR) has been successfully used for restoring or strengthening of existing structures. By combining the advantages of these two materials, a new composite system formed by embedding HSSSWR into ECC was proposed and expected to be a promising engineering material for repair or strengthening of structures. To investigate the tensile failure mechanism and mechanical properties of HSSSWR-reinforced ECC, an experimental study on 27 HSSSWR-reinforced ECC plates was conducted considering the effects of the reinforcement ratio of longitudinal HSSSWRs, formula of ECC and width of the plate. Test results revealed that HSSSWR-reinforced ECC exhibit superior post-cracking resistance, deformation capacity and crack-width control capacity. Increasing the reinforcement ratio of longitudinal HSSSWRs can effectively enhance the tensile strength, crack-width control capacity, deformation capacity and tensile toughness of HSSSWR-reinforced ECC. Adding thickener in ECC can significantly improve the crack-width control capacity and deformation capacity of HSSSWR-reinforced ECC due to enhancing uniform distribution of polyvinyl alcohol fibers, but would slightly reduce the cracking stress and maximum tensile stress by bringing small bubbles in the matrix. The tensile properties of HSSSWR-reinforced ECC plates are almost not affected by varying the plate width. Besides, a tensile constitutive model was developed for charactering the stress–strain relationship of HSSSWR-reinforced ECC in tension. Based on mechanical theories and failure characteristics of HSSSWR-reinforced ECC, the model parameters were determined, and calculation equations of cracking stress and tensile strength were proposed. The accuracy of the developed model and calculation equations was verified by test results.

Engineered cementitious composites (ECC) are distinguished by ultrahigh ductility and multiple cracking. High-strength stainless steel wire rope (HSSSWR) meshes have been successfully applied to strengthening existing structures. Taking advantage of both ECC and HSSSWR meshes, HSSSWR mesh–reinforced ECC promises to be an innovative strengthening material for significantly improving overall performance of existing structures. In order to capture the bond performance between HSSSWR meshes and ECC, direct pull-out tests on HSSSWR meshes embedded in ECC were performed considering the effects of spacing of transverse wire ropes, bond length, and nominal diameter of HSSSWR. The influence laws of the considered factors on the bond behavior between HSSSWR meshes and ECC were investigated. The failure characteristics and bond-slip relationship between HSSSWR meshes and ECC were revealed through analyses of experimental results. A bond-slip model was proposed to predict the bond-slip behavior of HSSSWR meshes in ECC, which was verified to be acceptable by comparing it with test results.

The objective of this paper was to explore the bond–slip relationship between carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets and concrete under cyclic loading through experimental and analytical approaches. Modified beam tests were performed in order to gain insight into the bond–slip relationship under static and cyclic loading. The test variables are the CFRP-to-concrete width ratio, and the bond length of the CFRP sheets. An analysis of the test results in this paper and existing test results indicated that the slope of the ascending segment of the bond–slip curve decreased with an increase in the number of load cycles, but the slip corresponding to the maximum shear stress was almost invariable as the number of load cycles increased. In addition, the rate of reduction in the slope of the ascending range of the bond–slip curve during cyclic loading decreased as the concrete strength increased, and increased as the load level or CFRP-to-concrete width ratio enhanced. However, these were not affected by variations in bond length if the residual bond length was longer than the effective bond length. A bilinear bond–slip model for CFRP sheets that are externally bonded to concrete under cyclic loading, which considered the effects of the cyclic load level, concrete strength, and CFRP-to-concrete ratio, was developed based on the existing static bond–slip model. The accuracy of this proposed model was verified by a comparison between this proposed model and test results.

Bond behavior is a key factor in the engineering application of composite material. This study focuses on the constitutive model of the bond behavior between high-strength stainless steel strand mesh and Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC). In this paper, the effects of strand diameter, bond length and transverse steel strand spacing on bond behavior were studied based on 51 direct pullout tests. Experimental results showed that the high-strength stainless steel strand mesh provided specimens an excellent ductility. Based on the experimental data, the existing bond–slip model was revised using the theory of damage mechanics, which fully considered the influence of the steel strand diameter on the initial tangent stiffness of the bond–slip curve. The results of the model verification analysis show that errors are within 10% for most parameters of the bond–slip model proposed, especially in the ascending section, the errors are within 5%, indicating that the calculated results using the revised model are in good agreement with the test results. In addition, the revised model was applied to the finite element analysis by using the software ABAQUS to simulate the pullout test, in which the spring-2 nonlinear spring element was used to stimulate the bond behavior between steel strand meshes and ECC. The simulation results show that the numerical analysis fits the experimental result well, which further verifies the accuracy of the model and the feasibility and applicability of the numerical analysis method.

This study introduces high-strength non-prestressed steel strands as reinforcement materials into Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECCs) and developed a novel high-strength stainless-steel-strand-mesh (HSSWM)-reinforced ECC with enhanced toughness and corrosion resistance. The bonding performance between HSSWM and an ECC is essential for facilitating effective cooperative behavior. The bond behavior between the HSSWM and ECC was investigated through theoretical analysis. A local bond–slip model was proposed based on the average bond–slip model for HSSWM and ECCs. The results indicated that the local bond–slip model provided a more accurate analysis of the bonding performance between HSSWM and the ECC compared to the average bond–slip model. The effects of the ECC’s tensile strength, steel strand diameter, and transverse strand spacing on local bond–slip mechanical behavior were investigated through FEA. The results showed that the local bond–slip model and FE results aligned well with the experimental data. Additionally, the distribution of bond stress between the HSSWM and the ECC was analyzed using the micro-element method based on the local bond–slip model. A prediction model for the critical anchorage length and bond capacity of HSSWM in the ECC was established, and the accuracy of the model was verified.