Flexural behaviour of concrete thin sheets prestressed with basalt-textile reinforcement

While the recently emerged textile-reinforced concrete (TRC) composites offer a more durable alternative to conventional reinforced concrete, these composites are susceptible to cracking and high deformations under service loads, which hinders their widespread application for the development of load-bearing structural components. Aiming at addressing this issue, the present paper experimentally investigates the flexural response of non-prestressed and prestressed basalt-based textile-reinforced concrete plates. Basalt is chosen as an emerging low-carbon reinforcement for TRC composites. The first series of tests is focused on non-prestressed TRCs and consists of eleven reinforcement configurations considering the role of reinforcement ratio, position and coating on the flexural behaviour of TRCs. The second series, focused on prestressed TRCs, considered the role of prestressing level (13%, 25% and 35% of the fabric’s ultimate tensile load), releasing time, testing age and coating type on the flexural behaviour.