Spatial Textile Reinforcement Structures for Ventilated and Sandwich Facade Elements

Textile Reinforced Concrete (TRC) is a new composite material using mesh-like technical textiles to transfer tensile forces in a concrete member. The main advantage in using these reinforcements is the reduction of concrete covers to only few millimeters leading to slender and light-weight concrete applications like ventilated facade elements and sandwich panels with TRC facings. Based on three applications, which are realized in the last two years, it is revealed that there is a need not only for capable planar fabrics but also for spatial structures. Inherently stable reinforcement structures are achieved by impregnating the fabrics with a resin (e.g. epoxy resin) and curing the structures in the desired shape at temperatures up to 180°C. Moreover, the utilization of the cross-section of the rovings is homogenized and, thus, a tensile strength up to 1400 MPa is achieved for AR-glass fabrics. The article deals with selected applications for facade structures made of TRC, material properties and demands on the textile reinforcement as well as production processes. Furthermore, test results regarding the load-bearing behavior of these selected applications are presented.