International Concrete Abstracts Portal

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.

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 material in which technical textiles composed of high-performance reinforcement fibers are embedded in a cementitious matrix. The technical textiles used in TRC are continuous reinforcement composed of a variety of materials such as alkali-resistant glass, carbon, aramid, and polymeric fibers. The continuous textile reinforcement provides enhanced tensile strength, ductility, and other features to the finished TRC composites. The TRC composites tend to be slender, lightweight, and capable of being designed into complex geometrical shapes and configurations. Thin TRC elements are also effective in retrofitting and strengthening existing weak and dilapidated concrete structures. Consequently, the use of TRC continues to grow very rapidly worldwide in a variety of applications. The material science and technology of textile reinforcement and cementitious matrix used for producing TRC composites is advancing rapidly, and is an active area of research and development in both academia and industry. This symposium publication contains papers originally presented in a symposium on TRC sponsored by ACI Committee 549 during the ACI Fall 2005 Convention in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. The symposium explored the current state-of-the-art and recent advances in material science, mechanical behavior, production methods, and practical applications of TRC. Important topics covered in this publication include material science and technology of textile reinforcement and cementitious matrix used in TRC, design methods for TRC, structural behavior of TRC, applications of TRC, production methods of TRC, and numerical modeling of TRC composites. The papers presented in this publication have been peer reviewed by the experts in the field according to the guidelines established by the American Concrete Institute. It should be emphasized that the future of TRC depends largely on its ability to compete cost effectively with the existing and other alternate emerging technologies. Because TRC is an emerging technology in itself, considerable research and development efforts are needed on various fronts to make the art viable and acceptable to end users and the industry. Significant research efforts are required to develop textile reinforcements that are strong, durable, processable, and economical. It is also crucial that research efforts be made to develop cement-based matrixes that have good compatibility and durability characteristics with the textile reinforcements involved. Further research and development efforts are also necessary to develop new processing methods for producing TRC composites efficiently and cost effectively.

Textile-reinforced concrete (TRC) imposes several special requirements on the applicable simulation methods. TRC is highly heterogeneous at several levels of material structures and, therefore, it exhibits a very complex failure process. Examples of interacting effects are the strain localization due to local failure mechanisms in the yarn, bond, and matrix. As a result, except for standard features, the developed models must be able to reproduce discontinuities of the displacement fields, reflect the irregularity of the material structure, special kinematics relations, and the size effect induced either statistically or energetically. This paper reviews the modeling strategies developed and applied in research and development of TRC in the collaborative research centers in Aachen and Dresden.

Textile-reinforced concrete has great potential for use in lightweight, thin-walled structural components. Since such elements participate directly in load transmission in the structural framework, satisfactory fire resistance is often desirable. Experience until now, however, has been limited with respect to the behavior of textile concrete elements subjected to fire. In this investigation, four fire tests have been performed on textile-reinforced concrete sections (I-profiles), in which one side of the sections was exposed to fire. The textiles tested were AR glass, carbon, and carbon coated with styrene butadiene. These experiments demonstrated that the load-bearing behavior of textile-reinforced structural components in fire greatly depends on the textile used, their bond to the concrete, and the behavior of the concrete under high temperatures.