Durability of polymer- impregnated AR-glass in textile reinforced concrete - material selection and long-term predictions

Durability of polymer-impregnated AR-glass in textile reinforced concrete - material selection and long-term predictions Textile reinforced concrete (TRC) represents a new and innovative building material, in which the reinforced is made out of technical textiles. Technical textiles are made out of AR-glass or carbon. Even when glass is considered to be alkali-resistant (AR), the AR-glass reinforcement shows a certain loss of tensile strength over the live time of a building member. This loss of strength is mainly caused by an alkaline attack of the glass network due to the high alkalinity of the pore solution of concrete. Due to the requirements of the load-bearing capacity as well as the handling during the production of TRC building members, the reinforcement structures used meanwhile are mainly impregnated with polymers. Depending on the type of polymer, the polymer-impregnation cannot only increase the load-bearing capacity but can also decrease the loss of strength of AR-glass due to a build-up of a diffusion barrier around the reinforcement. In this paper different polymers, which can be used to impregnate the reinforcement, as well as their influence on the durability are presented. In addition a model, which can be used to predict the long term loss of strength of polymer-impregnated AR-glass is presented. Besides the model, results of parameter studies are shown.