Textile-reinforced concrete (TRC) is a composite material consisting of a concrete matrix with a high-performance reinforcement made of technical textiles. TRC offers unique mechanical properties for the construction industry, enabling the construction of lightweight, material-minimized structures with high load-bearing potential. In addition, compared with traditional concrete design, TRC offers unique possibilities to realize free-form, double-curved structures. After more than 20 years of research, TRC is increasingly entering the market, with several demonstrator elements and buildings completed and initial commercialization successfully finished. Nevertheless, research into this highly topical area is still ongoing. In this paper, the authors give an overview of the current and future trends in the research and application of textiles in concrete construction applications. These trends include topics such as maximizing the textile utilization rate by improving the mechanical load-bearing performance (e.g., by adapting bond behavior), increasing design freedom by utilizing novel manufacturing methods (e.g., based on robotics), adding further value to textile reinforcements by the integration of additional functions in smart textile solutions (e.g., in textile sensors), and research into increasing the sustainability of TRC (e.g., using recycled fibers).

Textile reinforced concrete (TRC) is a sustainable composite material consisting of a cementitious based matrix in combination with an open meshed technical textile reinforcement made of carbon or glass fibres. In the future, TRC could be increasingly used in the form of double-curved concrete elements with the aim of producing filigree yet load-bearing concrete shell structures. To assess whether a textile is suitable as a reinforcement structure in double-curved textile concrete elements, numerous properties need to be investigated and evaluated. The most important of these include good handling properties, bending stiffness tailored to the application, sufficiently pronounced mesh openings, and defect-free drapability. In the course of this work, biaxially reinforced knitted fabrics with five different stitch types (pillar open, pillar closed, tricot counterlaid, tricot closed and plain) were investigated to evaluate the above properties. The draping tests were conducted on a robot-controlled draping test apparatus and evaluated with the aid of an optical measuring system. In addition, the geometric relationship between surface curvature of the double curved elements and the shear angle of different textiles was used to classify the influence of the stitch type on the drapability. Finally, for a given double curved geometry, based on the results the selection of an appropriate textile reinforcement which fulfil the component requirements is carried out and a double curved TRC demonstrator element is prefabricated.

This paper covers the mechanical simulation of woven textiles on the yarn level with an investigation of the influence of the sliding between yarns and changing yarn cross-sections under loading. An experimental validation of the simulation tools for a range of chosen woven structures with different weaving types and thicknesses of multifilament glass fibre yarns is provided. The main focus of the paper is the classification of the folding mechanisms in textiles.