Properties and calculation of normal section bearing capacity of RC flexural beam with skin textile reinforcement

In order to overcome the wide crack of ordinary reinforced concrete (RC) at service stage which affects the service performance and durability of structures, a kind of concrete structure with skin textile reinforcement is proposed, namely a part of concrete cover of RC members is replaced by textile reinforced concrete (TRC). The flexural experimental results indicate that when the reinforcement ratios of steel bars are constant, compared with control beams, the average value of crack loads of the beams, whose reinforcement ratios of textile are 0.018%, 0.036% and 0.055%, increases by 15.5%, 20.4% and 31.1%, respectively, the average value of yield loads respectively increases by 12.5%, 19.9% and 21.1% and the average value of ultimate loads respectively increases by 8.5%, 26.0% and 44.0%, respectively. Considerable reduction in cracks width and spacing is observed for specimens with a TRC layer, and when the beams yield, the maximum crack width of the beam with textile stuck no sand and the beam with textile stuck sand is reduced by around 60% and 70%, respectively. Surface treatment of textile and mixing polypropylene fiber into fine grained concrete contribute to enhance the service performance of the flexural element. Embedding U-shaped hoop has almost no effect on the control of the crack width. Finally, the calculation method of ultimate bearing capacity of this flexural component with TRC layer was presented. Comparison between the calculated and the experimental values reveals satisfactory agreement, and the maximum error is no more than 6%.