The flexural performance of structural concrete beams reinforced with carbon textile fabrics

The flexural behavior of carbon textile-reinforced concrete (TRC) beams was studied and compared with that of conventional steel-reinforced concrete (SRC) beams. Four types of TRC beams were examined of different fabric layers (2 and 4) and different shear reinforcements (steel cage rebars and U-shaped fabrics). The mode of failure and the flexural behavior were significantly influenced by the shear reinforcement configuration, such that greater flexural load-bearing capacity with no delamination was observed in the U-shaped fabric TRC beams, whereas the steel cage rebar TRC beams exhibited severe delamination with lower flexural load-bearing capacity. This difference was due to the mechanical anchoring of the U-shaped fabric to the matrix, which was not the case for the steel cage rebar TRC beams. A mathematical model for calculating the flexural tolerability of TRC beams at failure was developed, showing an excellent correlation with the experimental results.