An improved hydraulic servo structure testing machine has been used to conduct biaxial dynamic compression tests on eight types of engineered cementitious composites (ECC) with lateral pressure levels of 0, 0.125, 0.25, 0.5, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9, 1.0 (the ratio of the compressive strength applied laterally to the static compressive strength of the specimen), and three strain rates of 10-4, 10-3 and 10-2 s-1. The failure mode, peak stress, peak strain, deformation modulus, stress-strain curve, and compressive toughness index of ECC under biaxial dynamic compressive stress state are obtained. The test results show that the lateral pressure affects the direction of ECC cracking, while the strain rate has little effect on the failure morphology of ECC. The growth of lateral pressure level and strain rate upgrades the limit failure strength and peak strain of ECC, and the small improvement is achieved in elastic modulus. A two-stage ECC biaxial failure strength standard was established, and the influence of the lateral pressure level and peak strain was quantitatively evaluated through the fitting curve of the peak stress, peak strain, and deformation modulus of ECC under various strain rates and lateral pressure levels. ECC's compressive stress-strain curve can be divided into four stages, and a normalized biaxial dynamic ECC constitutive relationship is established. The toughness index of ECC can be increased with the increase of lateral pressure level, while the increase of strain rate can reduce the toughness index of ECC. Under the effect of biaxial dynamic load, the ultimate strength of ECC is increased higher than that of plain concrete.
Keywords: ECC; compressive toughness index; constitutive relationship; lateral pressure level; strain rate; stress-strain curve.