EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL STUDY OF RC BEAMS USING TEXTILE REINFORCED CONCRETE

Abstract

In this paper, the efficacy of Textile Reinforced Concrete (TRC), as a method for increasing the flexural
capacity and shear capacity of Reinforced Concrete (RC) beams, is experimentally and numerically examined. A new
type of Alkali Resistant (AR) glass textile fabric was utilized as strengthening material and the Polymer modified
cementitious mortar was utilized as bonding material for the AR-glass textile fabric instead of Epoxy resin, in view of
their advantages related to fire safety, low cost and furthermore it apply at wet surface. The studied parameters in this
research work included the number of textile layers as well as the configuration of the textile material. In total, Eighteen
Reinforced Concrete (RC) beams were casted and tested as simply supported under three-point loading test till failure.
On the basis of the experimental study of reinforced concrete beams strengthened in flexure and shear, it is concluded
that the textile composite provides sustainable gain in flexural and shear capacity, this increases as the number of
fabriclayers increases. Beside the experimental study, a Numerical investigation utilized non-linear finite element (FE)
analysis was also carried out using ABAQUS 6.13 Software. Good agreement was achieved between the experimental
and numerical results particularly for the load carrying capacity.