Investigation of a Testing Method for Compression Behavior of Spacer Fabrics Designed for Concrete Applications

Spacer fabrics are state-of-the-art structures and have attracted more attention in recent years. They have already been used in many areas and present different advantages especially for technical applications. Recently, special spacer fabrics have been designed in order to improve the characteristics of concrete which is used, in particular, for structural reinforcement of buildings. These spacer fabrics have different characteristics compared to conventional textiles due to their special structure. Therefore, characterization of these structures with existing methods is not possible. Compression resistance of spacer fabrics provided by spacer yarns in the structure is one of their main characteristics. However, compression behavior of spacer fabrics has not been investigated in detail to date. In this work, a testing method for the characterization of spacer fabrics used in concrete applications on the basis of their compression behavior has been investigated and defined.