Pull-Out Tests on AR-Glass Fabrics Embedded in Plain and Fibre-Reinforced Cementitious Mortars

As reflected in recent literature, the use of fabric-reinforced concrete (TRC) composites is growing both for the fabrication of new lightweight components (e.g., sandwich roof panels) and the strengthening/retrofitting of underperforming masonry or reinforced concrete structures. Given the wide variability of commercially available matrices and fabrics, a general requirement for the structural application of these materials is the experimental characterization of the composite mechanical properties. Such investigation, which generally includes characterization of the base materials (concrete/mortar and fabrics) and uniaxial tensile tests on composite coupons, should also include identification of the bond-slip properties at the fabric-to-matrix interface, if a proper design of the TRC application is to be achieved. In addition, the bond behavior is a key parameter to effectively simulate the composite response in nonlinear finite element numerical simulations. In this paper, a novel and rather simple test setup is proposed to determine the pull-out properties of glass fabric strips embedded into a cement-based matrix. The experimental campaign included a first series of twelve TRC specimens, in which both the total anchorage length and the fabric orientation (warp and weft) were varied. Subsequently, a second set of TRC coupons was tested, to investigate the effect of the addition of short polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fibres to the mortar.