Comparative low-velocity impact response of textile-reinforced concrete and steel-fiber-reinforced concrete beams

In this study, the effect of the textile reinforcement type on the flexural response of textile-reinforced concrete beams under static and impact loads was investigated. In addition, to compare the flexural capacities with those of conventional steel-fiber-reinforced concrete, steel-fiber-reinforced concrete beams having similar compressive strength with that of textile-reinforced concrete were fabricated and tested according to the fiber content. Enhancements in the flexural capacities were obtained using polymer-coated textile reinforcement, and three-dimensional textile reinforcement resulted in slightly better flexural performance than two-dimensional textile reinforcement under both static and impact loads. Upon comparison with the results obtained from the steel-fiber-reinforced concrete beams, the textile-reinforced concrete specimen with polymer-coated textile reinforcement exhibited the best flexural performance in terms of the strength, toughness, and residual load carrying capacity (higher than or at least similar to those of the steel-fiber-reinforced concrete with a fiber volume content of 2%), whereas the textile-reinforced concrete specimens with uncoated textile reinforcement exhibited lower strength and toughness than those of the steel-fiber-reinforced concrete with a fiber volume content of 0.5%. Finally, the strain-rate sensitivity of the flexural strength for textile-reinforced concrete was found to be similar to that for steel-fiber-reinforced concrete.