Sustainable Potential of Textile-Reinforced Concrete

Journal article, 2015

The building construction industry is in need of sustainable materials and solutions. A novel building material, such as textile-reinforced concrete (TRC), could be used to meet this demand. TRC is a combination of fine-grained concrete and multi-axial textile fabrics, which has been fundamentally researched over the past decade. TRC-based research has explored various facets of this composite material, such as its structural functionality, production, applicability and design. One key aspect that is still missing, however, is a comprehensive review of the sustainable potential of this material in terms of its input-output and durability which suitably answers to requirement no.7 of EU’s Construction Products Regulation. This article provides qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the sustainable potential and prospective development of TRC particularly reinforced by alkali-resistant (AR) glass, carbon or basalt fibers. Based on the outcome of this evaluation, carbon textile fibers were observed to hold the optimal potential mechanical behavior; additionally, it was revealed through the conducted Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), that basalt had the least cumulative energy demand while carbon had the least environmental impact.