International Concrete Abstracts Portal

Textile-reinforced concrete (TRC) is a composite material taking advantage of non-corrosive nature of fiber materials such as alkali-resistant glass (AR-glass), carbon, or aramid for designing slender and filigree structural elements. Compared to short cut fibers, textile reinforcement provides a higher degree of effectiveness because the fiber bundles are arranged in the direction of the main tensile stresses. These properties make TRC a promising construction material suitable for a wide range of structural or cladding applications. The material can be produced in plate or panel form, or as a lattice structure, each of these forms requiring different production and connection techniques. This investigation aims at identifying appropriate applications for TRC. These include façade, housing, and load-bearing systems made using slender TRC elements. Geometric and structural modifications are necessary to improve the performance of thin-walled building components made of textile-reinforced concrete. Using selected applications, this paper outlines the main principles of component design in relation to type of load, method of production, and connection details.

Textile-reinforced concrete (TRC) is a high-performance composite in which technical textiles made of high-performance fibers are embedded in a fine-grained concrete matrix. Textile reinforced concrete extends concrete applications to completely new fields. Besides slender new concrete elements, strengthening of already-existing concrete structures by thin textile-reinforced concrete layers is possible. This type of strengthening noticeably increases both the ultimate loadbearing capacity and serviceability of reinforced concrete structures. This aspect is shown in the present paper using experimental results of TRC-strengthened slabs.

The aim of this research project was to develop a textile-reinforced concrete ceiling board that remains as part of the ceiling after completion. The lost formwork element was designed to carry the load of a 200 mm (7.87 inch) thick layer of fresh concrete. The influence of different reinforcement textiles was examined. The load bearing capacity and the serviceability were investigated by 4-point bending tests. The bond to the top concrete layer was examined by bending tests carried out on composite beams consisting of the formwork element with a top concrete layer. To test the loadbearing capacity when the element is used as part of a one-way spanning slab, composite slabs of three formwork elements with steel-reinforced top concrete were cast and tested. The resistance to fire of the integrated formwork elements was investigated by conducting standardized fire tests. The results from this investigation demonstrate that the developed textile reinforced concrete formwork element successfully achieved the designed load-bearing capacity and serviceability requirements.

Incorporation of short fibers as reinforcement in concrete as popularly practiced at the moment provides only a low level of improvement in composite mechanical properties. The application of directed endless fiber reinforcement (i.e. textiles), so far utilized only in some limited special areas, has a high growth potential for use as reinforcement in concrete and promises several new fields of applications. In order to fulfil the reinforcement function, particular heavy-duty filament yarns are required in concrete composites. Their utilization in a multitude of possible applications can be practical only if prefabricated textile reinforcements with desired construction and properties can be manufactured efficiently. Modern textile production processes are now available with which extensive as well as spatial thread alignments in the production process can be implemented to produce novel textile reinforcement for applications in concrete. This paper provides an overview of the relevant textile formation methods for reinforcement textiles. A review of testing methods to characterize textile properties is also provided.

The objective of this study was to investigate use of pultrusion technique as a cost-effective method for the production of thin-sheet fabric-reinforced cement composites. Cement-based composites were developed with different fabric types using cast (hand layup) process and pultrusion (impregnated) methods. Knitted fabric made from low-modulus polypropylene (PP) fabric, woven fabric made from low-modulus polyethylene (PE), and bonded glass meshes were used. Tensile and pullout tests as well as SEM observations were used to examine the mechanical, bonding, and microstructure properties. It was observed that the processing method significantly affects the bond as well as the tensile performance of the composite. The best performance was achieved for the polypropylene pultruded composites.