Assessing the influence of yarn characteristics on the uniaxial tensile response of glass textiles

Textile reinforced concrete (TRC) is a promising construction material that has steadily gained consideration for the development of highly ductile concrete elements with improved tensile strength. TRC composite consists of fine-grained concrete as matrix and non-metallic textiles/fabrics as reinforcement. The tensile properties of the textiles govern the mechanical behaviour of the TRC. The strength of textiles mainly depends on the characteristics of the filaments in the yarn, as well as the impregnation of the coating that ensures load distribution among the filaments. Thus, this study comprehensively evaluates the tensile characteristics of textiles using two widely used test methods on single yarns (ASTM D6637) and strips (BS EN ISO 13934). Seven types of textiles (T1 to T7) were assessed, and the data indicate that strip strength is lower than single yarn strength in all cases. Similarly, the strength of the yarn decreases with an increase in filament diameter, whereas the coating does not seem to have any significant effect beyond a certain amount. Also, the type of coating has only a marginal effect on the strength. Finally, it is concluded that the strength of the impregnated bundle or yarn follows the Weibull size effect, with a reduction in the coefficient of variation due to the local load sharing effect due to the coating and with larger bundle size.