Confinement properties of circular concrete columns wrapped with prefabricated textile-reinforced fine concrete shells

This paper proposes an innovative column composed of a core column(including both reinforced concrete(RC)and plain concrete(PC)columns)and a prefabricated textile-reinforced fine concrete(TRC)shell.To study the confinement properties of TRC shells on this novel type of concrete column,20 circular specimens,including 12 PC columns and 8 RC columns,were prepared for axial compressive tests.Four key parameters,including the column size,reinforcing ratio of the carbon textile,concrete strength,and stirrup spacing,were evaluated.The results indicated that the compressive properties of the columns were improved by increasing the reinforcing ratio of the textile layers.In the case of TRC-confined PC columns,the maximum improvement in the peak load was 56.3%,and for TRC-confined RC columns,the maximum improvement was 60.2%.Based on the test results,an analytical model that can be used to calculate the stress–strain curves of prefabricated TRC shell-confined concrete columns has been proposed.The calculated curves predicted by the proposed model agreed well with the test results.

Performance of interface between TRC and existing concrete under a chloride dry-wet cycle environment

Textile-reinforced concrete(TRC)is suitable to repair and reinforce concrete structures in harsh environments.The performance of the interface between TRC and existing concrete is an important factor in determining the strengthening effect of TRC.In this paper,a double-sided shear test was performed to investigate the effects of the chloride dry-wet cycles on the average shear strength and slip at the interface between the TRC and existing concrete,also considering the existing concrete strength,bond length,textile layer and short-cut fiber arrangements.In addition,X-ray diffraction(XRD)technology was used to analyze the microscopic matter at the interface in the corrosive environment.The experimental results indicate that the interface performance between TRC and existing concrete would decrease with continued chloride dry-wet cycles.Compared with the specimen with a single layer of textile reinforcement,the specimens with two layers of textile with added PVA or AR-glass short-cut fibers could further improve the properties of the interface between the TRC layer and existing concrete.For the TRC with a single layer of textile,the average shear strength tended to decrease with increasing bond length.In addition,the strength grade of the existing concrete had a minor effect on the interface properties.

Unsymmetrical Fibre-Reinforced Plastics for the Production of Curved Textile Reinforced Concrete Elements

A new constructive and technological approach was developed for the efficient production of large-dimensioned, curved freeform formworks, which allow the manufacturing of single and double-curved textile reinforced concrete elements. The approach is based on a flexible, multi-layered formwork system, which consists of glass-fibre reinforced plastic (GFRP). Using the unusual structural behavior caused by anisotropy, these GFRP formwork elements permit a specific adjustment of defined curvature. The system design of the developed GFRP formwork and the concrete-lightweight-elements with stabilized spacer fabric was examined exhaustively. Prototypical curved freeform surfaces with different curvature radii were designed, numerically computed and produced. Furthermore, the fabric’s contour accuracy of the fabric was verified, and its integration was adjusted to loads.

Flexural behavior of textile reinforced mortar-autoclaved lightweight aerated concrete composite panels

To improve the deficiencies of prefabricated autoclaved lightweight aerated concrete(ALC)panel such as susceptibility to cracking and low load-bearing capacity,a textile-reinforced mortar-autoclaved lightweight aerated concrete(TRM-ALC)composite panel was developed in this study.One group of reference ALC panels and five groups of TRM-ALC panels were fabricated and subjected to four-point flexural tests.TRM was applied on the tensile side of the ALC panels to create TRM-ALC.The variable parameters were the plies of textile(one or two),type of textile(basalt or carbon),and whether the matrix(without textile)was applied on the compression side of panel.The results showed that a bonding only 8-mm-thick TRM layer on the surface of the ALC panel could increase the cracking load by 180%−520%.The flexural capacity of the TRM-ALC panel increased as the number of textile layers increased.Additional reinforcement of the matrix on the compressive side could further enhance the stiffness and ultimate loadbearing capacity of the TRM-ALC panel.Such panels with basalt textile failed in flexural mode,with the rupture of fabric mesh.Those with carbon textile failed in shear mode due to the ultra-high tensile strength of carbon.In addition,analytical models related to the different failure modes were presented to estimate the ultimate load-carrying capacity of the TRM-ALC panels.

Analytical theory of flexural behavior of concrete beam reinforced with textile-combined steel

Textile-reinforced concrete (TRC) is a new high performance cementitious composite material,which not only has superior corrosion resistance but also can effectively limit the development of concrete cracks and make the crack width and spacing of concrete become smaller.However,due to the brittle feature of fiber materials,the TRC structural member has no distinct failure symptom when it arrives at its ultimate load.At the same time,ordinary reinforced concrete (RC) elements have large dead weight and can not efficiently restrict the expansion of the main crack of structures because of the restriction of their special cover thickness.In order to overcome the disadvantages of both the TRC and the RC,a new architecture reinforced with textile-combined steel is proposed in this study,making full use of the advantages of the above two structures.The cover concrete at the tension zone of an RC element is partially replaced with TRC and thus the steel reinforcements replaced with textiles are subtracted.Compared with the old one,the new structure has less dead weight and has the merits of service safety and good durability.The flexural development process of the proper beam with this new structure is investigated in this paper and based on the plane section assumption,analytical equations are derived by using nonlinear analysis theory,including the load-carrying capacity at different stages and moment-curvature relationship and mid-span deflection during the entire loading process.Comparison between the calculated and the experimental results reveals satisfactory agreement and thus verifies the feasibility of the equations.