Knitted Meshes for Reinforcing Building Composites

Abstract

Modern technical textiles, including knitted fabrics, are widely used in the construction industry. Regarding textiles in concrete reinforcement, methods based on shredded fibres, meshes, reinforcing mats, woven textiles and knitted DOStapes are frequently used as underlays of concrete constructions. Textiles are also used in the reinforcement of fibrous FRP composites. The research presented focused on producing composites made of MapeiMapefill concrete mass with reinforcement in the form of three variants of knitted meshes made of 228 tex polyamide threads, polypropylene threads of 6.3 tex and 203 tex glass threads, as well as identification of their mechanical properties. The mesh variant made of glass fibre is especially noteworthy, as its strength is more than three times higher than that of polyamide meshes. At the same time, a very small relative elongation of 3% is observed for this variant of knitted fabric, which is a desired property regarding the comparatively low stretching extension of concrete. In the process of making the composites, the adhesion of the concrete mass to the surface of the threads was analyzed. For this purpose, a "Sopro HE449" type agent was used. Composite beams were subjected to a three-point bending strength analysis on a testing machine. The results of strength measurements of the composites obtained prove that those with glass fibres demonstrate a threefold increase in strength compared to the original concrete beam.