Application of Textile Reinforced Concrete in Precast Concrete Industry

Abstract

Abstract The sales of Germany’s precast concrete industry have been almost 6 billion Euros in 2017. This is only a small part of total construction investments but precast concrete industry traditionally is open-minded for implementation of innovations. Consequently, many new trends in civil engineering have been started in precast concrete industry. Recently, Textile Reinforced Concrete (TCR) has got more and more attention for application in precast members. Basic idea for the development of TRC was the intention to replace the traditional steel bar or steel mesh reinforcement by textile meshes on the basis of alkali-resistant glass fibres, carbon fibres or basaltic fibres. By this method it is possible to avoid the corrosion problem of the steel-based reinforcement and to improve the durability of precast concrete members. However, there was not a real break-through of TRC in construction practice until 2010. Main reason was the preferred usage of glass fibre meshes as textile reinforcement and the limited load-bearing capacity. The last step in the development of TRC is the application of carbon fibres for the production of mesh and bar reinforcement. Carbon meshes and carbon bars may be used combined or separately as reinforcement resulting in a new construction material called Carbon Concrete Composite. Based on the outstanding properties of carbon fibres it is possible to enhance essentially the application possibilities of TRC. The paper describes the basics of the production and approaches for the design of Carbon Concrete Composite members and reports first applications in construction practice.