STRAIN HARDENING BEHAVIOR OF TEXTILE REINFORCED CONCRETE (TRC)

The current paper discusses several parameters that affect strain hardening behavior of Textile Reinforced Concrete (TRC) systems: fabric geometry, yarn nature (multifilament), and processing methods with relation to bonding mechanisms. When considering fabric geometry to reinforce TRC systems, the unique structure of the fabric can control bonding of by mechanical anchoring and therefore improving the overall mechanical behavior of the composite. Yarn nature in most fabrics for TRC applications is in a multifilament form, in such reinforcements, cement penetrability is a controlling factor to obtain high performance and strain hardening behavior. Controlling of cement penetrability in TRC systems can be in numerous ways, for example: by proper design of fabric geometry to govern loops or stitches size connecting the multifilament yarns into a fabric form; or by inserting fillers in between the filaments of the bundle prior to composite production, as well as processing methods such as using the pultrusion technique. These approaches can lead to improve bonding and therefore strain hardening behavior of the composite even when low modulus yarns are used such as PE or PP. However on the other hand, lack of cement penetrability can lead to significant low reinforcing efficiency of extremely high modulus fabrics such as carbon.