Flexural behavior of BFRP reinforced seawater sea-sand concrete beams with textile reinforced ECC tension zone cover

To improve the service behavior of basalt fiber reinforced polymer (BFRP) reinforced seawater sea-sand concrete (BFRP-SWSSC) beams, textile reinforced ECC (TRE) are utilized in the tensile zone to replace the traditional SWSSC. The experimental parameters of TRE included the number of textile layers, the matrix thickness, and the matrix type. The results showed that the failure mode of the composite beams transitioned from tensile failure to balanced failure with the increase in the matrix thickness and the number of textile layers. The composite layer can promote the ultimate capacity to some extent. Compared with engineered cementitious composites (ECC) and textile reinforced concrete (TRC), TRE can more effectively reduce the deflection and crack width, as well as improve the ductility, at the service stage. The improvement was more significant when the matrix thickness and the number of textile layers increased. Compared with those of the control beams, the deflection and crack width were reduced by 63.2% and 71.3% under the service loads, respectively, while the ductility index was improved by 29.1% for the TRE composite beam with three textile layers. Furthermore, the formulas for the ultimate capacity of the composite beams were developed and verified by the experiments. (C) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.