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Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC) is a ductile fiber reinforced material developed in the 1990s suitable in repair and retrofit applications. However, its widespread use is currently limited by the elevated cost of the material. Optimization of overall dimensions of elements within specified crack width limits can be an effective cost cutting tool. Therefore, it was the objective of this study to investigate the effect of varying plate thickness on the crack propagation characteristics of ECC by monitoring the crack width and crack distribution on 10, 20 and 30 mm ECC plates. ECC plates were cast and water cured for 28 days at 20°C. Cracks were then generated using a bending machine, accentuated by fluorescent paint and imaged by a digital camera. Crack distribution was analyzed from the images using AutoCad software while crack widths were directly measured on the plates by a Crack-Viewer FCV-30. It was found that all ECC plates developed multiple fine surface cracks measuring 0.08 mm average width and no significant variation in the crack width or crack distribution with variation in thickness was observed. Therefore, the characteristic fine surface cracks of restricted widths produced by ECC are independent of thickness of the plates. Since, a 10 mm reduction in thickness of unit area of ECC results in a 33% reduction in volume of the material required, application of smaller thicknesses of ECC significantly reduces cost of material and increases its economic viability.
