Experimental Investigation on the Bending Behaviour of Textile Reinforced Concrete (TRC)

Abstract

Textile-Reinforced Cement (TRC) was used in structural retrofitting and strengthening existing structures. While at present, recent studies have turned around using TRC as an independent structural element. This research presented an experimental study on the flexural behavior of TRC plates. Several parameters were taken into account, specifically, (a) the number layer of textile fiber materials (1, 2, and 3); (b) the configuration of the reinforcement (together or interface); (c) thickness of TRC plate (50, 70) mm. This study included preparing and testing twelve specimens; two specimens were un-reinforced, whereas the rest ten specimens were reinforced by dry carbon fiber textile. The results found that increasing the number of layers for both reinforcement configurations led to increased flexural capacity. Increasing the thickness of the plate has a negative effect on the flexural capacity for both reinforcement configurations. Finally, the interface reinforcement configuration with thickness 50 mm or 70 mm had higher flexural capacity than the specimens with together reinforcement configuration.