Ragrag, Abdalla
(2024)
The performance of structural foamed concrete with textile reinforcement (TRFC).
PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.
Abstract
Foamed concrete (FC) has gained substantial interest in the construction sector owing to its lightweight nature, workability, thermal and sound insulation properties, and ease of fabrication. However, FC's high permeability exacerbates corrosion in conventional steel reinforcements. Textile Reinforced Concrete (TRC) presents an innovative alternative, replacing conventional steel with textile reinforcement. Utilizing TRC as reinforcement in foamed concrete offers potential reductions in size, weight, and cost.
This study explores the interaction between foamed concrete's benefits and its compatibility with textile reinforcement, capitalizing on the FC's lack of coarse aggregate and high workability. The novelty lies in producing and experimentally analysing AR glass textile reinforced foamed concrete (TRFC) beams and assessing various failure scenarios through theoretical calculations. The primary aim is to identify optimal configurations for structural applications among TRFC cases and evaluate their environmental and cost implications.
The research encompasses several stages. Firstly, formulating FC mixes with a density of 1800 kg/m³, compressive strength ranging from 21 to 35 MPa, and workability exceeding 300 mm. Theoretical analyses predict the flexural behaviour of simply supported TRFC beams under tension and compression. Subsequently, beams are experimentally examined across multiple failure modes, utilizing Digital Image Correlation (DIC) to facilitate displacement measurement and crack tracking. Finally, environmental and cost impacts are evaluated through a life cycle assessment (LCA) of TRFC one-way slabs.
Key findings reveal significant agreement between experimental and theoretical results, with variations for TRFC samples ranging between 6.25% and 12.78%. Moreover, short fibres enhance the elastic limit of the TRFCS samples, requiring 40% more load to initiate cracking compared to TRFC samples. Furthermore, the TRFCS under compression failure sample exhibits the highest energy absorption capacity with 165 kN·mm.
The TRFCS slab demonstrates a higher embodied CO2 of 2490 kgCO2 compared to the CRC slab's 1884 kgCO2, primarily due to its increased cement content. However, both TRFCS and CRC slabs display similar results in the embodied energy analysis, each having an embodied energy of 15700 MJ.
Given the structural performance of TRFCS-Com, further large-scale experiments involving beams and slabs are recommended to compare performance with conventional reinforced concrete. Moreover, additional research and data collection is necessary to interpret the environmental impacts and sustainability considerations of textile reinforced foamed concrete.
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