Tensile behavior of carbon textile concrete composite captured using a probabilistic multiscale multiple cracking model

The fast growing amount of high-performance textile fabrics made of carbon, glass and basalt yarns open up enormous design scope for cementitious composites, that needs to be sorted and graded using novel characterization procedures. A combined experimental and numerical characterization method of the composite tensile behavior is presented here for concrete reinforced with non-impregnated carbon textile fabrics. Because of the heterogeneous structure of the bond layer, which consists of a non-impregnated multifilament yarn partially penetrated by the cement paste, this material combination poses particularly high demands on a realistic modeling approach. It is well known, that the tensile response of strain-hardening brittle-matrix composites is primarily shaped by the multiple cracking process of the matrix. To account also for the local damage developing in the heterogeneous bond layer ahead of a crack bridge during the multiple cracking process, we combine a probabilistic crack bridge model with a generalized version of a crack tracing algorithm reflecting the random matrix strength. The resulting probabilistic multiscale multiple cracking model has been calibrated and validated using a consistent series of crack bridge and composite tensile tests by comparing the predicted and measured stress-strain curves and crack spacing histories. The efficient, flexible and realistic modeling concept can serve as a basis for the development of rapid characterization methods and more economic and reliable design rules.

Automated summary

A combined experimental and numerical characterization method is presented for the composite tensile behavior of concrete reinforced with non-impregnated carbon textile fabrics. The modeling approach needs to account for the heterogeneous structure of the bond layer.