Analytical modeling of textile reinforced concrete (TRC) sandwich panels: Consideration of nonlinear behavior and failure modes

Abstract

The emergence of new composite materials in the building industry allows textile reinforced concrete (TRC) to be used in many industrial applications such as structural strengthening and new lightweight structures. One of the most promising applications of TRC is as a potential alternative to steel reinforced concrete and fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) used in the skins of foamed sandwich panels. This study proposes an analytical method of designing TRC sandwich panels. Additionally, the method allows the load bearing capacity of TRC sandwich panels under bending solicitation to be calculated. The proposed model can promote TRC applications in the engineering and building industry. The proposed model considers the nonlinear behavior of TRC using the ACK approach for evaluating the axial and bending stiffness of TRC in the multicracking and textile transmission phases. Furthermore, the foam shear strains and foam hardening during bending solicitations are considered. The analytical approach was validated based on experimental data, and the validation process implemented was used to investigate the evolution of local strains in TRC skins to ensure the robustness of the developed model.

Keywords:

• Composite material
• analytical method
• TRC sandwich panel
• bending solicitation

Acknowledgments

The authors thanks KAST company (Sonthofen, Germany) for providing the textile reinforcement used in the study.

Disclosure statement

All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the Academic research community (ARC ENERGIES and SCUSI) of the Rhone-Alpes and Auvergne FRANCE region.