CONFINEMENT OF COLUMNS WITH TEXTILE REINFORCED CONCRETE: AN EXPERIMENTAL COMPARISON BETWEEN BASALT AND CARBON TEXTILE REINFORCED CONCRETE

Confinement of existing RC columns by means of Textile Reinforced Concrete (TRC) is a technology developed in recent times. When using TRC as a mean of confinement, basalt textile fabrics are of particular interest due to their mechanical properties combined with low environmental impact. Furthermore, research performed by the Authors shows that the concrete matrix admixed with short dispersed fibres significantly improves the performance of TRC strengthening solutions in general. The addition of short dispersed steel fibres in the concrete matrix leads to a new material called Fibre/Textile Reinforced Concrete (F/TRC). Through an experimental campaign, an investigation about the influence on the confinement of the following two variables was conducted: the material of the textile fabric (basalt and carbon), and the presence of short dispersed steel fibres admixed to the concrete matrix. A total of 15 short cylindrical RC columns were tested under uniaxial compression. The results show that the performances of basalt and carbon textiles used for confinement are comparable, both in terms of strength and, to some extent, of post-elastic behaviour, highlighting the possibility of using basalt as an alternative to carbon without significant performance losses and combined with reduced environmental impact. Furthermore, F/TRC solutions outperformed traditional TRC, showing the beneficial effect of the short dispersed steel fibres to the performance of the strengthened specimens.