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Textile Reinforced Mortar (TRM) overlays have seen widespread usage in recent years for the strengthening of existing structures including reinforced concrete ones. However, little is known about the behavior of these materials in various harsh environments and their ability to serve as barriers against the ingress of chemicals harmful to concrete and steel. In this paper, plain concrete, plain mortar, and composite TRM/concrete samples are subjected to accelerated carbonation as well as to a high chloride concentration environment. It was observed that TRM delayed the penetration of harmful substances into concrete, but the diffusion mechanisms may change during specimens' exposure to these aggressive environments due to resulting physicochemical changes. Finally, analytical models were developed, and their results were found to be in good agreement with the experimental data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, the optimal design of a mortar based on alkali-activated material technology is presented. Ferronickel slag, a byproduct of the ferronickel alloy industry, was used both as a binder component (in a finely ground form) and as fine aggregate in alignment with a circular economy approach. The proportions of binder, fine aggregate, and water were optimized using Design of Experiment Design of Mixtures. The performance indicators evaluated were flow, flexural and compressive strength both before and after high-temperature exposure, mass loss, and thermal shrinkage. Life cycle assessment was used to calculate the relative environmental cost of the studied mixes in comparison to a counterpart traditional Ordinary Portland Cement mortar. The optimal mix design exhibited high flexural strength (8.5 and 10.5 MPa, before and after high-temperature exposure, respectively), an unheated compressive strength equal to 69.5 MPa, and a post-heating residual one of 33.9 MPa, 7.7% mass loss and 3.4% thermal shrinkage. Mercury Intrusion Porosimetry along with Scanning Electron Microscopy with Energy Dispersive X-Ray Analysis were also performed on optimal mortar samples in order to link micro-structural heat-induced changes to residual (post-heating) macro-mechanical performances. Finally, when compared to OPC-based products, the optimized mortar mix resulted in 70% lower CO2 emissions indicating great potential for the construction sector where concern about environmental impact keeps growing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of a new structural material, namely textile reinforced mortar (TRM), as a means of increasing the load carrying capacity and deformability of unreinforced masonry walls subjected to cyclic out-of-plane loading is experimentally investigated in this study. The effectiveness of TRM overlays is evaluated in comparison to the one provided by fiber reinforced polymers (FRP) in the form of overlays or near-surface mounted (NSM) reinforcement. TRM systems may be considered as alternative to FRPs, tangling with some of the drawbacks associated with the application of the latter without compromising performance. Medium-scale tests were carried out on 12 masonry walls subjected to out-of-plane bending. The parameters under investigation comprised mortar-based versus resin-based matrix materials, the number of layers, the orientation of the moment vector with respect to the bed joints and the performance of TRM or FRP jackets in comparison to NSM strips. It is concluded that TRM jacketing provides substantial increase in strength and deformability. Compared with their epoxy-resin counterparts (FRP), TRM may result in generally higher effectiveness in terms of strength and deformability. NSM strips offer lower strength but higher deformability, due to controlled debonding. From the results obtained in this study it is believed that TRMs comprise an extremely promising solution for the structural upgrading of masonry structures under out-of-plane loading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study the application of a new structural material, namely textile-reinforced mortar (TRM), as a means of increasing the load carrying capacity and deformability of unreinforced masonry walls subjected to cyclic in-plane loading is experimentally investigated. The application of externally bonded TRM is considered in this work as an alternative method to the application of fiber-reinforced polymers (FRP). Hence, the effectiveness of TRM overlays is evaluated in comparison to the one provided by FRPs. Medium-scale tests were carried out on 22 masonry walls subjected to in-plane cyclic loading. Three types of specimens were used: (a) shear walls; (b) beam-columns; and (c) beams. The parameters under investigation included the matrix material (mortar versus resin), the number of textile layers and the compressive stress level applied to shear walls and beam-columns. Compared with their resin-impregnated counterparts, mortar-impregnated textiles may result in generally lower effectiveness in terms of strength, but in much higher in terms of deformability. From the results obtained in this study it is believed that TRMs hold strong promise as a solution for the structural upgrading of masonry structures under in-plane loading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of textile reinforced mortar (TRM) as a means of increasing the shear resistance of reinforced concrete members is investigated in this study. TRM may be considered as an alternative to fiber reinforced polymers (FRP), providing solutions to many of the problems associated with application of the latter without compromising much the performance of strengthened members. Based on the experimental response of reinforced concrete members strengthened in shear it is concluded that textile-mortar jacketing provides substantial gain in shear resistance; this gain is higher as the number of layers increases and, depending on the number of layers, is sufficient to transform shear-type failure to flexural failure. TRM jackets were provided in this study either by conventional wrapping of fabrics or by helically applied strips. Both systems resulted in excellent results in terms of increasing the shear resistance. However, compared with their resin-impregnated counterparts, mortar-impregnated textiles may result in reduced effectiveness. Modelling of reinforced concrete members strengthened in shear with TRM jackets instead of FRP ones is presented by the authors as a rather straightforward procedure by the proper introduction of experimentally derived jacket effectiveness coefficients. From the limited results obtained in this study it is believed that TRM jacketing is an extremely promising solution for increasing the shear resistance of reinforced concrete members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Textile Reinforced Mortar (TRM), also known as Fabric Reinforced Mortar or Fabric Reinforced Cementitious Matrix, composites are an emerging technology for the external repair and strengthening of existing structures. For most applications, the effectiveness of the TRM reinforcement relies on its bond performance. This recommendation identifies the best practice to characterize the bond behaviour of TRM. A shear bond test method is proposed to determine the peak axial stress (associated with the maximum load that can be transferred from the structural member to the externally bonded TRM reinforcement), the stress-slip relationship and the failure mode that controls the TRM-to-substrate load transfer capacity. Guidelines on specimen manufacturing, experimental setup, test execution, and determination of test results are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]