Effect of Fiber Meshes on Compression Performance of Textile Reinforced Concrete Based on Response Surface Method

Textile Reinforced Concrete (TRC) is a high-performance novel composite material developed in recent years as high-strength and lightweight construction materials. TRC consists of textile fibers in the form of continuous mesh used as reinforcement in the cementitious matrix. The present paper focuses on determining the effect of three types of cementitious mixes, two types of textile fiber mesh, namely aramid and alkali resistant glass fiber, varying sizes of mesh opening and the number of textile layers in TRC. Totally 432, specimens were cast for three mixtures to study the compressive strength of TRC containing fiber meshes with varying numbers of layers (3, 4, 5 and 6 layers) at different ages (7, 28 and 56 days) according to Response Surface Methodology (RSM). D-optimality design based on RSM was used to evaluate the influence of the number of layers on the compressive strength response using MINITAB 19 software. Linear and quadratic mathematical models were developed by RSM with factors and results from experimental design. It was observed that the highest compressive strength of 99.05 MPa was achieved for Mix-3 of TRC with bonded type of aramid fiber mesh of 5 layers at the age of 56 days. The percentage contribution of linear, quadratic, and 2-way interaction for the factors (No. of layers and ages) were in the range of 55.36 to 76.08%, 27.39 to 44.73%, and 0 to 2.85%, respectively. The models were statistically evaluated by analysis of variance, and the results indicate that linear and quadratic models were statistically significant (p ≤ 0.05).