Effect of Textile Characteristics on the AR-Glass Fabric Efficiency

Marco Carlo Rampini,Marco di Prisco,Giulio Zani,Matteo Colombo,Louis Schouler

doi:10.3390/textiles1020020

Abstract

Alkali-resistant (AR) glass textiles are used as the main reinforcement in several composite applications due to their good performance-to-cost ratio. A huge variety of textiles are already present in the market; they differ on various parameters, such as, for example, the filaments’ diameters, the geometry, the type of weaving, or the nature of the impregnation coating. To orient manufacturers towards the production of efficient textiles, the most important aspect is the balance between cost and performance. In this paper, a series of different fabrics designed for textile-reinforced cementitious composites were considered. Performance was assessed by means of uniaxial tensile tests and the results are presented in terms of load vs. displacement. Then, the selected AR-glass textiles were compared in terms of fabric efficiency, targeting the effect of each parameter on the textile capacity. The research here presented is part of a comprehensive campaign aimed at the optimization of glass-fabric-reinforced cementitious composites for structural retrofitting. To better discuss the different solutions tested, at the end, only considering a small number of the investigated textiles, an efficiency evaluation was carried out at the cementitious composite level.

Highlights

The use of textile-reinforced composites has steadily been growing in various sectors during recent years
In textile-reinforced concrete (TRC) and fabric-reinforced cementitious matrix (FRCM) the tensile capacity is ascribed to the reinforcing fabrics and a proper uniaxial response should result in a trilinear behavior in which the initial elastic branch is followed by the multi-cracking of the fine-grained inorganic matrix and, by a marked strain-hardening phase mainly governed by the textiles
The AR-glass textiles are ordered at increasing equivalent thickness in the warp direction and they mainly differ in terms of roving fineness, weaving pattern, grid spacing, and nature of the coating used for the impregnation

Summary

Introduction

The use of textile-reinforced composites has steadily been growing in various sectors during recent years. In TRCs and FRCMs the tensile capacity is ascribed to the reinforcing fabrics and a proper uniaxial response should result in a trilinear behavior in which the initial elastic branch is followed by the multi-cracking of the fine-grained inorganic matrix and, by a marked strain-hardening phase mainly governed by the textiles. For both manufacturers and designers, the most important aspects in devising and employing efficient composites for construction are, respectively, the reduction of the manufacturing cost and the selection, among many textiles available in the market, of those characterized by the highest performance-to-cost ratios. The chemical nature of the coating [8,9,10,11,12] and the weaving characteristics [13,14,15] significantly affect the behavior of cementitious-based composites

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion