Experimental Investigations on the Uniaxial Tensile Behaviour of Carbon Textile Reinforced Geopolymer Mortar

Abstract

AbstractTextile reinforced mortar (TRM) has emerged as a promising material in the construction industry, offering thin and lightweight structures and an effective technique for strengthening prevailing structures that are deteriorating or need to have their mechanical performance upgraded. Despite the advantages of this composite material, improved knowledge about TRMs efficiency still needs to be gained. Also, its applications are limited as standard codes for experimental testing and design are still in progress. In this paper, an experimental investigation on the effect of grid spacing of yarns in textile and the number of textile layers on the uniaxial tensile behaviour of carbon textile reinforced geopolymer mortar is studied. Rectangular coupon specimens of length 500 mm, width 40 mm, and thickness 10 mm were made as per AC434 and RILEM TC 232-TDT recommendations. Geopolymer mortar utilising the waste materials generated from industrial products like fly ash and ground granulated blast-furnace slag was used for the study. It was observed that coupons having 15 mm grid spacing and four layers of carbon textile showed an improved tensile strength of about 146% compared to one layer of carbon textile. This improvement in load-carrying capacity could be attributed to the increased number of warp yarns to take the tensile loading. In all the tested coupons, failure mode observed was upon loading, matrix cracking occurred at regular spacing; then, the crack widens and the textile got elongated. Finally, the tensile rupture of the textile yarns leads to the failure of specimens.KeywordsTextile reinforced mortarCarbon textileGeopolymer mortarCouponsUniaxial tensile testWarp yarns