Possibilities of Textile Manufacturing for Load-Adapted Concrete Reinforcements

Incorporation of short fibers as reinforcement in concrete as popularly practiced at the moment provides only a low level of improvement in composite mechanical properties. The application of directed endless fiber reinforcement (i.e. textiles), so far utilized only in some limited special areas, has a high growth potential for use as reinforcement in concrete and promises several new fields of applications. In order to fulfill the reinforcement function, particular heavy-duty filament yarns are required in concrete composites. Their utilization in a multitude of possible applications can be practical only if prefabricated textile reinforcements with desired construction and properties can be manufactured efficiently. Modern textile production processes are now available with which extensive as well as spatial thread alignments in the production process can be implemented to produce novel textile reinforcement for applications in concrete. This paper provides an overview of the relevant textile formation methods for reinforcement textiles. A review of testing methods to characterize textile properties is also provided.