Textile reinforced cement composites: competitive status and research directions: Fid-Bau Portal

Textile reinforced cement composites: competitive status and research directions

Naaman, A.E.

This paper summarizes the author's opinion as to where we are and where we should go in the near future in the field of thin reinforced cementitious composites. Pointing out the similarities between ferrocement and thin TRC composites an attempt is made to provide a definition for TRC using that of ferrocement as a reference base. Then the paper summarizes the performance status of ferrocement (reinforced with conventional steel wire meshes), thin reinforced cement composites and thin textile reinforced concrete composites (reinforced with fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) meshes or textiles or fabrics) using their bending resistance (modulus of rupture) as a basis of comparison. The bending resistance is first normalized by the volume fraction of reinforcement to compare mechanical performance, then it is used in combination with the density of the reinforcement to derive a willingness-topay price for such reinforcement. It is first observed that not all FRP or textiles or fabrics can be economically justified, at time of this writing, on the basis of their mechanical performance. However, since labor cost can be significant, the use of 3D textiles may prove to be the breaking point for textile reinforcements to become cost competitive with steel. Some research directions are suggested and include the development of 3D textiles specifically tailored for thin and larger scale products, the use of very lightweight matrices with FRP meshes or fabrics or textiles, the use of hybrid 3D textiles incorporating steel wires or strands in additions to FRP fibers, the use of self-stressing composites using shape memory materials with deformation recovery property, the use of ultra-high performance cementitious (UHPC) matrices with textiles and a combination of these such as self stressing and UHPC.