Flexural performance enhancement of reinforced concrete beams strengthened with hybrid alkali-resistant glass and basalt textiles
摘要
This paper presents an experimental and analytical investigation on the flexural behaviour of reinforced concrete beams strengthened using a novel Hybrid Textile Reinforced Concrete system that integrates alkali-resistant glass and basalt textiles bonded with a high-performance cementitious inorganic matrix. The proposed system addresses the drawbacks of conventional strengthening methods such as corrosion, delamination, and poor fire resistance associated with fibre-reinforced polymers (FRP). Ten beams of size 100 × 150 × 1800 mm were tested under two-point loading. One served as control beam while nine beams were strengthened with 2, 4, and 6 layers of AR-glass, basalt, and hybrid textiles. The beams were subjected to sand blasting and then strengthened with textile reinforcement using cementitious binder. The results revealed a significant enhancement in flexural behaviour. The hybrid textile beam with four layers exhibited the highest ultimate load capacity of 42.8 kN, corresponding to a 58% increase over the control specimen. The stiffness increased by 39%, and the crack width was reduced by 80%, indicating superior serviceability. The hybrid configuration also improved energy absorption compared to mono-textile systems. The experimental results were validated using finite element analysis and Artificial Neural Network modelling, with predictive accuracy exceeding R2 > 0.9. The findings indicated that hybrid textile system effectively harnesses the advantages of both materials, resulting in improved flexural strength, ductility, and crack resistance.
Graphical abstract