Flexural behavior of polymer-based textile-reinforced concrete using basalt fibers

Textile reinforced concrete (TRC) is a class of cementitous composites that entails several advantages compared to traditional reinforced concrete such as lightweight, high tensile strength, design flexibility, and potentially corrosion free. As a result, TRC is suggested in a variety of structural applications including facades, protection panels, bridges, and waterproofing systems. A typical TRC element consists of multiple fiber fabrics embedded in thin cementitous concrete plate. Previous research reported a high potential for debonding between the fiber fabrics and the surrounding cementitous matrix due to poor impregnation and relatively high voids content. Recently, a new class of TRC is introduced by replacing the cementitious matrix by a polymer matrix to overcome the debonding problem. In this paper, textile-reinforced polymer concrete (TRPC) is produced using basalt fiber textile mesh and fine-grained Methyl Methacrylate (MMA) polymer concrete. Four different specimen configurations were produced by incorporating 0, 1, 2, and 3 textile layers in polymer concrete. Three-point bending test was carried out to examine the flexural performance of the TRPC specimens and the flexural strength of the different configurations was compared. In addition, the crack pattern intensity was determined via image processing technique to assess the ductility of TRPC. Comparison between different TRPC configurations reveals that increasing the number of fabric layers significantly improves the flexural behavior of TRPC.