A lattice model approach to the uniaxial behaviour of Textile Reinforced Concrete

In this contribution, a lattice model for the simulation of the load-carrying and the failure behaviour of Textile Reinforced Concrete (TRC) under monotonic and cyclic tensile loading is presented. A special property of the mentioned composite TRC is that the reinforcement consists of heterogeneous multi-filament yarns of alkali-resistant glass, which are not fully penetrated with matrix of fine-grained concrete. This leads to complex bond conditions. The lattice model for the simulation consists of one-dimensional strands of bar elements with limited tensile strength, which represent the matrix as well as the reinforcement. These strands are connected with zero-thickness bond elements, which use non-linear bond laws as element characteristics. These bond laws contain a damage algorithm to include a possible degradation of the bond quality due to mechanical loading. This nonlinear problem is solved within a Finite Element Method formulation. Simulations of tensile specimens are performed and compared to experimental data for both monotonic and cyclic loading.