# Mechanical Properties of Desert Sand-Based Fiber Reinforced Concrete (DS-FRC)
## 1 Introduction  
With the ever-increasing development of construction, there is an urgent need for high performance building materials to meet structural performance requirements. The high ductility cementitious composites, with the aim of enhancing the seismic performance of structures, have received great attentions. They have the characteristics of higher tensile ductility and compression deformation properties, and the uniaxial tensile and compression strains can be over 3% and 0.5%, respectively [1; 2]. Although, there are varieties of names such as engineered cementitious composites (ECC) [3; 4], ultra-high performance fiber reinforced cementitious composites (UHPFRCC) [5; 6], strain hardening cementitious composites (SHCC) [7; 8; 9], ultra-high toughness cementitious composites (UHTCC) [10; 11; 12] and fiber reinforced concrete (FRC) [13; 14], they all maintain the essence of high ductility and have achieved good engineering applications [15; 16; 17; 18; 19]. The high ductility cementitious composites are composed of polyvinyl alcohol fiber (PVA) and fine aggregates, such as cement, fly ash, and fine river sand. The lack of coarse aggregates leads to the excessive consumption of raw materials, especially forriver sand. In addition, the excessive mining of river sand has resulted in serious environmental damages. Therefore, there is an urgency to find suitable replacement of river sand with low cost and environmental protection. Currently, the worldwide use of high volumes of mineral admixtures (such as fly ash or slag) and available fine aggregates (such as tailings, sea sand and desert sand) are the main solutions. In addition, uniaxial tensile/compression testes are widely used to verify the high ductility of cementitious composites [14; 20; 21; 22; 23; 24; 25; 26; 27]. The high ductility of cementitious composites can be achieved by optimizing the material components, as is shown by [PERSON] et al. [28]. The fracture toughness of matrices and the tensile ductility of composites will be effectively improved with fine aggregates [29; 30]. When the size of particles exceeds 300 \(\upmu\)m, the fracture toughness of matrices may enhance significantly, which is bad for the development of tensile strain hardening. Besides, some recent studies [31; 32] have confirmed that the very fine particles play an important role in promoting hydration and optimizing material properties. All above alternatives meet the demand of small particles and can contribute to the ductility development of cementitious composites. [PERSON] et al. [33] found that the emitted CO\({}_{2}\) would be reduced by 80% through the equivalent replacement of cement. The composites exhibited good tensile strain hardening properties [34; 35], even for the fly ash replacement rate of 75%. Moreover, [PERSON] et al. [36] confirmed the feasibility of slag in preparing the SHCC with tensile strains of 4-6%. However, the research on the feasibility of alternative fine desert sand mainly focused on mortar or concrete. There are few studies referring to high ductility cementitious composites. In terms of tailings, some acceptable results have been revealed [37; 38]. Tailings with appropriate size can enhance the compression strength and flexural strength of composites. The dispersion of fiber is effectively facilitated which will promote the ductility development of cementitious composites. The results regarding sea sands have showed that reduced compression capacities would be obtained due to the excess of CI' [39; 40]. Desert sand is abundant in some parts of the world, and the reasonable use of it will slow down the consumption river sands and promote the environment protection. The reasonable use of desert sand has aroused a great attention. It was found that desert sand played an important role in improving the physical and chemical properties of mortar [41]. The strength of desert sand concrete (DSC) was comparable to that of ordinary concrete [32; 42; 43; 44]. The structures filled by DSC have obtained good engineering applications [45].