Experimental and numerical investigations about textile-reinforced concrete and hybrid solutions for repairing and/or strengthening reinforced concrete beams

This experimental and numerical study is related to the repair and strengthening of reinforced concrete beams with TRC (textile-reinforced concrete) and hybrid (TRC + carbon and glass rods) solutions that are positioned relative to the more traditional ones such as the CFRP (carbon fibre-reinforced polymer) solutions. Beyond the good performances highlighted experimentally, especially in terms of bearing capacity and different failure modes (e.g., possibility to avoid peeling off), it is clear from this work that the TRC, despite its nonlinear behaviour (multi-cracking), does not allow a significant gain in ductility. From a numerical perspective using numerical modelling (smeared crack approach), the overall behaviour of beams reinforced with TRC (or the hybrid solutions) based only on the textile “efficiency factor” (or the average contribution of the filaments) as a calibration coefficient was found to be significantly satisfactory. Numerical modelling performed on all the beams also highlighted the fact that the axial stiffness of reinforcements (even in the case of a cracking material) governing the overall behaviour of beams could, at least in part, explain the observed failure modes.