Abstract
Strain-Hardening Cementitious Composites (SHCC) show very ductile behavior under tensile stress. These excellent new materials can be used to make very ductile as well as very durable structural members. To further the application of this new type of material to structural members, it is essential to assess more properly its tensile mechanical performance using suitably sized specimens. The test methods proposed so far, however, are limited to either uniaxial tension tests using rather small and thin geometries, or an indirect assessment using bending tests. The purpose of the present study is to develop loading devices for uniaxial tension tests on specimens of SHCC with the section size of 100x100 mm2. The effectiveness of the developed loading devices is examined through a series of experiments. Furthermore, the influence of the boundary conditions is critically discussed.
