The objective of this study is to assess the positive effect of fibrillar waste byproducts, such as biochar, on enhancing the tensile strain capacity and ductile behavior of cementitious composites by evaluating their fracture energy and fracture process zone length through the Work of Fracture Method (WFM). Cementitious mortars enriched using a low amount of biochar of 1 wt% exhibit 100% higher fracture energy over the OPC mortar indicating that the incorporation of the byproduct significantly increases the composite’s ability to absorb strain energy at the post-peak/strain softening area. As indicated by the 1.9x higher characteristic length of fracture process zone, lch, of biochar-mortar, the effective incorporation of the fibrillar byproduct holds a great potential to increase the post-crack tensile strain capacity that leads to a significantly improved ductile behavior of the cementitious composite.
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