Textile reinforced concrete

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the potential of Textile Reinforced Concrete as a thin, concrete cladding element. Furthermore, the behaviour of the specimens when reinforced with different materials was studied. The reinforcing textiles which were incorporated into the fine-grained concrete included an AR-glass fibre mesh, an HDPE mesh, and a wire mesh. Textile reinforced panels were cast and tested under flexure, impact loading, and pull-through testing. This allowed an understanding of the load bearing behaviour and toughness of the composite to be obtained. In addition, its ability to withstand the load that would be applied by a fixing device was also examined. The physical properties of the mix, along with the relationship between the concrete to reinforcement interface was also investigated by means of microscopic tests. The results showed that the specimen behaviour was dependent on the material yield strength, rather than its ultimate tensile strength. An increase in yield strength allowed the materials to undergo larger elastic and plastic deformations prior to failure. An overall analysis of the results showed that the wire mesh composites performed best under all forms of loading. The wire reinforcement enabled the concrete to develop a crack propagation prior to failure, which in turn allowed the specimens to experience further deformation, and fail in a more ductile manner.