BENDING BEHAVIOR OF FIBERGLASS TEXTILE-REINFORCED THIN GEOPOLYMER MORTAR PANELS

Textile-Reinforced Mortar (TRM) or Textile-Reinforced Concrete (TRC) can produce novel structural techniques in civil engineering fields. The current study experimentally investigated the bending behavior of thin geopolymer mortar panels reinforced with Fiberglass Textile Grids (FGTG). The experimental work totally consisted of twelve panel specimens divided into two groups; each group included six specimens. The first specimen of each group was unreinforced, whereas the rest of the specimens were reinforced with a different number of grids; however, each group's molarity of NaOH solutions was different. The results showed that the flexural strength and compressive strength of geopolymer mortar were significantly increased with the increment of molarity of NaOH solutions by 33 %. Textile reinforced geopolymer mortar (TRGM) panels showed deflection hardening behavior and multiple cracking. The deflection values at the same load levels were decreased when the number of grids and the molarity of NaOH solutions were increased. For TRGM specimens, in addition, the difference in molarities of NaOH solutions depicted a clear influence on the number and propagation of cracks. The toughness values of TRGM specimens were importantly enhanced with the increase of the FGTG reinforcement ratio.