Experimental study on the tensile strength degradation of curved alkali resistant glass and carbon textile as concrete reinforcement under complex loading

Nowadays, textile reinforced concrete (TRC) is one of the promising methods for strengthening existing reinforced concrete (RC) and masonry structures. When TRC works as an externally bonded reinforcement of RC beams or columns, the textile fiber bends around the corners of the members. At these locations, the tensile strength of the curved textile reinforcement reduces due to the action of complex loading. This paper presents an experimental study on the tensile strength degradation of curved alkali resistant (AR) glass and carbon textile reinforcement in TRC with different curved diameters subjecting to both tensile and compressive loading. The results showed that the maximum tensile force and the tensile strength of both textile materials reduced as the diameter of the semi-circle decreased from 120 to 60 mm. The addition of the compressive load also resulted in lower strength in textile reinforcement. Compared with compressive load, the curvature diameters had a greater influence on the tensile strength of both textile materials. The failure modes of all the experiment cases were the rupture of the textile reinforcement in the centre of the curved sections or at the transition region of the straight and curved sections. The degradation ratio between the tensile strength of curved AR glass textile and that of straight filament was higher than in the case of carbon textile. In the case of the same curved diameter specimens, the compressive load had a greater influence on the tensile strength of carbon textile than on AR glass.