Abstract:Under the effects of mechanical and environmental loading, airfield pavement is prone to distresses of cracking, joints damage and vertical displacement of panels, which results in frequent maintenance. In order to control propagation of cracks and achieve jointless function, this study attempts to use engineered cementitious composites (ECC) as an airfield pavement material for its high ductility and intrinsic self-healing capacity. Damage in ECC can be healed by secondary hydration, thus reducing the maintenance cost and prolonging service life. In this paper, the mechanical properties of ECC and its self-healing behavior as well as the cracking potential at early age of ECC were investigated. The result shows that the tensile strain of ECC can reach 3.67% under the action of tensile load, (about 400 times higher than that of ordinary concrete) and the vertical deflection can reach 6.33 mm under flexural load. The flexural and compressive strength is 12.68 MPa and 43.9 MPa, respectively, which meets requirements of airfield pavement. Under restrained shrinkage, ECC is expected to have a low tendency towards fracture failure. With self-healing, the tensile stiffness, tensile strain and tensile strength of damaged ECC can almost be restored to the extent that it was not cracked. The water permeability coefficient of pre-damaged ECC decreases gradually to that of a virgin one. It can be concluded that ECC material has strong feasibility for jointless airfield pavement.