TEXTILE-REINFORCED-MORTAR STRENGTHENING OF AGEING CONCRETES: SUSTAINABLE APPROACHES AND OPPORTUNITIES

In the mid-nineteenth century, inventive entrepreneurs (among others, Lambot, Wilkinson, and Monier) took the first steps towards the production of Reinforced Concrete (RC) on an industrial scale. Nowadays, RC is used in over 80% (160×106) of buildings within the EU27, 25% of which were built before 1960 (in Bilbao, for example, 80% were built before the 1970s). The situation calls for sustainable and fully compatible strengthening solutions, especially where RC structures (some considered as built heritage) are now deteriorating and in need of repair. In this paper, novel composite solutions based on inorganic matrixes (i.e., cement mortars, as with RC) reinforced with a technical textile core made of different synthetic fibres (steel, basalt, carbon and glass, respectively) are used. The composite, known as Textile Reinforced Mortar (TRM), developed a round the turn of the century for restoring masonry heritage structures, is tested here for two purposes: material characterization (mortar and textiles), and the strengthening of medium-size RC beams under flexural loading. All the experimental results are discussed, in order to balance the opportunities for future applications where the inorganic TRM matrixes (cement and aggregates)can be partially substituted by two kinds of steel-making slags (EAFS-black and LFS-white), so asto convert them into types of eco-inorganic matrices and co-products within a circular economy.