SP-224—05

Exterior Cladding Panels as an Application of

Textile Reinforced Concrete

by J. Hegger, H. Schneider, A. Sherif, M. Molter, and S. Voss

Synopsis: The composite material textile reinforced concrete (TRC) offers a number of
advantages, in particular for the manufacturing of façades. The textile reinforcement and
the possible thin concrete cover, enable the construction of thin-walled structural
components. Filigree cladding panels made of textile reinforced concrete open up new
ways for an entirely new application of the construction material concrete and give
architects and engineers more freedom in the design. In this paper some basic information
about the load bearing behavior of textile reinforced concrete is given and the use of
textile reinforced concrete in a pilot project for the exterior claddings of the extension of
the laboratory hall at the RWTH Aachen University, Germany, is described.

Keywords: cladding panels; curtain wall; facades; textile reinforcement

55
56 Hegger et al.
AUTHOR’S BIOGRAPHIES

Josef Hegger is Professor at the Civil Engineering Department, RWTH Aachen,

Germany since 1993. He obtained his Ph.D. 1985 from the TU Braunschweig. From 1985
until 1993 he was employed by the German civil contractor Phillip Holzmann. His main
research interests include shear, high-strength concrete, and textile reinforced concrete.
He is conveyer of the fib task group TG 4.2 Ultimate Limit State Models.

Hartwig Schneider is Professor at the Architectural Department for Construction and

Design, RWTH Aachen, Germany since 1999. He studied at the University of Stuttgart in
Germany and the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. Since 1988 he is partner of
an Architectural Consulting Office in Stuttgart and member of the German Association
for Architects since 1993.

ACI member Alaa Sherif is Associate Professor in the Civil Engineering Department,
Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Calgary,
Canada in 1996. He is an Associate Member of ACI Committee 352 Joints and
Connections in Monolithic Connections. His main research interests include the behavior
and serviceability of reinforced concrete structures.

Matthias Molter obtained his Diploma Degree in the field of structural engineering from
the Technical University of Darmstadt in 1993. From 1996 to 1998 he worked as a
research assistant at the Structural Department at the University of Karlsruhe, and from
1998 to 2002 at the Structural Concrete Department at the RWTH Aachen, Germany.
Since 2002 he is director of the technical office, Bremer AG, Paderborn, Germany.

Stefan Voss is research assistant at the Structural Concrete Department at the RWTH
Aachen, Germany. He obtained his Diploma Degree in the field of structural engineering
from the RWTH Aachen in 2002.

RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE

Textile reinforced concrete enables the construction of thin-walled structural

components, because only a thin concrete cover of the textile reinforcement is needed to
ensure the bond between fibers and concrete [1]. Reducing the thicknesses of the
components results in more economic façade anchors and further load bearing elements.
In a research project, cladding panels made of textile reinforced concrete have been
developed for their application in a pilot project. The design of the panels is based on
experimental investigations on textile reinforced concrete samples with different
reinforcement properties. In this paper some general information are given about the load
bearing behavior of textile reinforced concrete, important test results and a first
application of TRC are described.
 Thin Reinforced Cement-Based Products 57
INTRODUCTION

The development of textile reinforced concrete is based on the fundamentals of glass

fiber reinforced concrete with short fibers. In order to increase the effectiveness of the
fibers, they are aligned in the direction of the tensile stresses, thus, similar to the case of
ordinary reinforced concrete elements. By replacing the ordinary steel reinforcement by
textile reinforcement, filigree-cladding panels with a broad range of design options can
be created. Profile thicknesses, previously known only from steel construction and
composite fiber plastics structures, can be achieved with textile reinforcement as well as
high quality homogenous surfaces. These advantages lead to an entirely new application
potential for concrete as a building material, especially for façade construction. The small
panel thickness of 25 mm achieved by textile reinforced concrete, compared to the 70 to
100 mm required by ordinary reinforced concrete panels, results in a lower dead load and
eliminates the need for complex façade anchors.

Textile reinforced cladding panels have been used for the extension building of the
Institute of Structural Concrete, RWTH Aachen University, shown in Fig. 1. The existing
single-aisle hall with a span of 12.0 m has been extended by four axes of 5.4 m spacing
each. Curtain wall elements were used except for the lower part (socket) of the building,
where sandwich plates of 35 mm thick facing shells were placed (Fig. 2). Innovative,
textile reinforced concrete components have been developed for this purpose. On the
longitudinal side of the hall, 2685 x 325 x 25 mm curtain wall panels as shown in Fig. 3
have been applied instead of hitherto natural stone, which would have been the typical
choice. The high cost of the natural stone and its manufacture restricts its use to high
quality administrative buildings. Textile reinforced cladding panels are notably less
expensive and are therefore a cost efficient alternative for residential and commercial
structures.

EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS

Extensive experimental and theoretical investigations are currently carried out at the
RWTH Aachen to determine the load bearing behavior of textile reinforced concrete.
Therefore, the effect of different fiber materials (e. g. alcali resistant glass (AR Glass),
carbon and aramide), different fiber bundle (roving) and fabric geometries, coatings and
concrete properties are tested.

Materials: AR Glass fiber fabrics have been chosen as reinforcement for the façade
panels because of their lower costs compared to fabrics made out of carbon or aramide
fibers. The textile reinforcement fabrics for the test series (Table 1) were designed and
manufactured by the Institute of Textile Technology, RWTH Aachen University. They
differ in the roving thickness and the mesh size. The tensile strength σmax is determined as
the average value of 10 tensile tests on 125 mm long parts of rovings taken from the
fabric. The loading has been applied with a deformation rate of 10 mm/min. The values
for σmax are only reference values because of the test results depending on the
deformation rate and the length of the specimen. The properties of the fine-grained
concrete used for the specimens are given in Table 2.
58 Hegger et al.
Tests: Previous tests [2], [3] showed that the tensile strength of the embedded fibers in
the composite material textile reinforced concrete cannot be fully exploited. Reasons for
this are the damage of the fibers during the textile manufacturing processes, the bond
characteristics of the rovings in the concrete, the fiber adjustment and the surface finish
of the fibers. For determining the tensile load bearing capacity of the composite material,
tensile tests were performed with 900 mm long and 100 mm wide test specimens as
shown in Fig. 4. Strains were measured directly on the specimens using LVDT‘s. The
loading was applied with a constant deformation rate of 1 mm/min. In order to examine
the influence of the fiber orientation, in one test-series the fabrics were turned around
22.5°, 45.0°, 67.5° and 90.0° with respect to the direction of the tensile stresses. In
addition, four-point-bending tests have been carried out to determine the load bearing
capacity of textile reinforced concrete structures under bending loading. The influence of
the reinforcement quantity on the load bearing capacity and on the effectiveness of the
fibers was examined by varying the reinforcement ratio. The specimens geometry and the
test set-up are shown in Fig. 5. The tests have been repeated two times, so that each test-
series with its specific material combination and test set-up consists of three tests.

Results: Investigations in [4] revealed that the shape of the textile reinforcement cross-
section has a substantial influence on the load bearing capacity. With a roving embedded
in the concrete, the filaments which are in direct contact with the concrete matrix transfer
higher bond forces than the filaments which are located inside a roving. Thus, rovings
with large diameters have worse load bearing characteristics compared to rovings with
small diameters, which have a more favorable cross-section area to perimeter ratio. This
is also confirmed by own tests as shown in Fig. 6, where the results of tensile tests are
compared. It is obvious that the fabric MAG-01-03 consisting of the finest rovings
reaches the highest utilization of the fibers. With increasing roving thickness, the
maximum failure stress of the textile reinforcement decreases.

The effect of the fiber orientation on the load bearing behavior of textile reinforced
concrete is shown in Fig. 7 (a). The load bearing capacity of sloped rovings is lower than
those of rovings aligned in the load direction. For the MAG-07-03 having an equal
orthogonal reinforcement the results show symmetry to an angle of 45°. The rate of the
loss of load bearing capacity subjected to the fiber orientation is given by the reducing
factor k0,α. With increasing fiber slope the effectiveness of the fibers decreases to 61% for
a fiber orientation of 45°. Reason for the loss of load bearing capacity are additional
stresses the sloped fibers are subjected to during the cracking process. The change of the
direction of the fibers at the crack edge causes bending stresses and delaminating of the
fibers from the matrix as well as a transverse force pushing the roving against the crack
edge. This leads to fiber failure at the sharp crack edge and can cause a failure at the
matrix edge. Tests in [5, 6] with sloped rovings showed that the fibers are not pulled out
of the matrix even if the bond length of the fibers is very short. In fact, the member’s
failure is always caused by the fracture of the sloped fibers.

The four-point-bending tests on samples reinforced with MAG-07-03 showed that

there is no effect of the reinforcement ratio on the fiber effectiveness. In Fig. 7(b) the
reinforcement ratio is given as the percentage of reinforcement cross section area to the
 Thin Reinforced Cement-Based Products 59
concrete area of the profile. The fiber effectiveness k0, shown as a function of the
reinforcement ratio, is calculated as:
σ f ,bt
k0 = (1)
σ max

In this equation σf,bt is the maximum failure stress of the roving in the bending test on the
textile reinforced concrete specimen and σmax is the tensile strength of the roving. For
different reinforcement ratios the fiber effectiveness reaches a constant value of about
40 % for the MAG-07-03. The fiber effectiveness may be improved by a coating. Coating
or laminating the textiles leads to the gluing of the filaments. Thereby, the bond
characteristics of the core filaments between each other are significantly improved and
the effectiveness of the fibers can be more than doubled [4].

Conclusions: Based on the test results, the tensile load bearing capacity Fctu of the textile
reinforcement cross section embedded in concrete may be calculated as:
n
Fctu = ∑ k 0i ⋅ k 0i ,α ⋅ Ati ⋅ σ max
i
(2)
i =1

where k0 and k0,α are the factors accounting for the bond behavior and the orientation of
the fibers resulting from tension and bending tests on textile reinforced concrete
structures, At is the cross-section area of the fabric, σmax is the maximum tensile strength
of the rovings and n is the number of fabric types in the cross section.

DESIGN OF THE TEXTILE REINFORCED CONCRETE PANELS

The design of the textile reinforced concrete panels is based on the progress report for
textile reinforced concrete [2] and on the described experimental as well as theoretical
investigations on the behavior of textile reinforced concrete elements conducted at the
RWTH Aachen University.

The dimensions of the panels are 2685 x 325 x 25 mm and the support conditions are
shown in Fig. 8(a). Because of the statically determined support conditions no stresses
due to temperature changes are generated. The reinforcement layer in the longitudinal
direction lies about 4 mm from the surface of the panel leaving an effective depth d of 21
mm. This leaves a concrete cover of at least 3 mm. In addition to their own weight (g =
24 kN/m3), the panels are designed for a maximum wind suction ws = 1.0 kN/m2
occurring at the corners of the building. The analysis resulted in a maximum bending
moment in the longitudinal direction of MW.L. = 0.24 kNm/m due to wind loading as
shown in Fig. 9, in addition to a tensile force due to the own weight of the panels ND.L. =
2.8 kN/m. The design tensile force Tt for the textile reinforcement is calculated as:
γ W . L . MW . L . γ D . L . N D . L .
Tt = + (3)
yct 2
60 Hegger et al.
Applying a moment arm yct = 0.85d, a load factor γW.L.= 1.5 for wind load and γD.L. = 1.35
for own weight, results in a tensile force Tt = 22 kN/m. The required cross section At is
determined as:
γ t Tt
At = (4)
k 0 k 0,α σ max

Considering the results of the described experimental investigations a coated alkali

resistant glass fiber fabric (2200 tex and 8.33 mm mesh size in longitudinal direction, and
320 tex and 8.4 mesh size in the transverse direction) has been chosen for the
reinforcement of the panels. The coating doubles the effectiveness k0 of the uncoated
fabric, thus, k0 increased to 80 %. In addititon, using a coated fabric leads to a better
manageability because of the improved stability of the fabric structure. The fabric having
a maximum tensile strength σmax of 627 MPa and including a material safety factor γt =
1.5 for the textiles, the required area is 65.8 mm2/m. The used mesh has a cross section
area of At = 97.4 mm²/m in the longitudinal direction (direction of the tensile stresses).
The fabrics are arranged in two layers close to the surface, thus, providing an upper and
lower reinforcement layer. In the area of the bearings an additional layer has been
provided in the vertical direction as shown in Fig. 8(b). The load bearing capacity has
been checked in four-point-bending tests as shown in Fig. 10. The result of the tests was a
load bearing capacity of about 1,10 kNm/m of the panels (Fig. 11), meaning a maximum
tensile force of the textile reinforcement of 61.6 kN/m. Thus, the safety factor against
collapse under service loads is higher than 4. Furthermore, the large deflection values
measured in the tests indicate the ductility of the panels.

PRODUCTION OF THE TEXTILE REINFORCED CONCRETE PANELS

For the production of the panels a self-compacting fine-grained concrete having an

optimum consistency capable of fully soaking the fabric was used. The concrete mix used
is listed in Table 3. The panels were produced lying horizontally as shown in Fig. 12.
First, a 4 mm thick concrete layer is poured in the formwork, followed by the placing of
the first layer of textile reinforcement. Then a 17 mm thick layer of concrete is poured
followed by the placing of the second reinforcement layer, and finally the remaining 4
mm concrete layer is poured.

For fixing the curtain wall panels, an agraffe-fixing device shown in Fig. 13 is used.
The vertical aluminum substructure (skeleton) of the device is plugged into the steel-
reinforced wall. The agraffes are fixed to the textile-reinforced panels using special
dowels. These are positioned in the panel inside cone-shaped boreholes. Pull out and
shearing tests as shown in Fig. 14 have been carried out in order to check the load bearing
capacity of the dowels. In practice the dowels are loaded with a combined pull-out and
shearing load with a calculated maximum value of 0,17 kN. Therefore, the lowest load
capacity resulting from the tests had to be determined. The results (Fig. 15) showed that
the dowels can resist more than seven times the load they are actually subjected to in
practice even if they are positioned in cracked concrete.
 Thin Reinforced Cement-Based Products 61
PRODUCTION OF THE SANDWICH ELEMENTS

The concreting of the sandwich elements is performed in analogy to the production of

ordinary reinforced concrete elements. The textile reinforcement (in this case a contoured
profiled spacer fabric, consisting of two cover layers and threads in between as shown in
Fig. 16(a)) is placed in the formwork, which is then filled with highly liquid fine-grained
concrete. Before that, the anchors connecting the facing shell elements with the
reinforced concrete bearing elements are put in place. After the hardening of the facing
shells, the reinforced concrete bearing element is poured. In Fig. 16(b) a completed
sandwich element is shown.

SUMMARY

The successful application of textile reinforced concrete as exterior cladding panels in

a pilot project has been demonstrated. The thin walled, corrosion free panels proved to be
an efficient and economical alternative for conventional reinforced concrete or natural
stone facades. The new panels made of textile reinforced concrete open up new ways for
entirely new applications for concrete as a construction material.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors thank the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) in context of the

Collaborative Research Center 532 “Textile Reinforced Concrete” and the Ministry of
Labor and Social Affairs in the German State of North-Rhine/Westphalia (NRW) for
their financial support.

REFERENCES

1. Hegger, J.; Curbach, M., 2001, “First Colloquium on Special Research Areas 528 and
532”, Proceedings, RWTH Aachen, Germany, February 15-16, 334 pages

2. Curbach, M., Hegger, J. et al., 1998, “Sachstandbericht zum Einsatz von Textilien im
Massivbau”, Chapter 7.5, Deutscher Ausschuss für Stahlbeton (DAfStb), Heft 488, Beuth
Verlag, pp. 81- 90

3. Ohno, S.; Hannant, D.J., 1994,“Modelling the Stress-Strain Response of Continuous

Fiber Reinforced Cement Composites”, ACI Materials Journal, Vol. 91, No.3, pp. 306-
312

4. Molter, M., 2001, “Bruchtragverhalten textilbewehrter Biegekörper”, Proceedings of

First Colloquium on Special Research Areas 528 and 532, RWTH Aachen, pp. 205- 219

5. Mashima, M.; Hannant, D.J.; Keer, J.G., 1990, “Tensile Properties of Polypropylene
Reinforced Cement with Different Fiber Orientations”, ACI Journal, Vol. 87, No. 2, pp.
172-178
62 Hegger et al.
6. Bartos, P., 1982, “Bond in Glass Reinforced Cements in: Bond in Concrete”, Elsevier
Applied Science, London, pp. 60- 72

NOTATIONS

At = cross-section area of the textile reinforcement

Fctu = failure load from tensile test
k1 , k 0 = factors accounting for the bond behavior and the fiber orientation respectively
MW.L. = bending moment due to wind loading
ND.L. = normal force due to own weight
Tt = design tensile force for the textile reinforcement
Ut = perimeter of the textile reinforcement
yct = internal moment arm
σmax = maximum tensile strength of the rovings
γW.L., γD.L. = load factors for wind and dead loads respectively
γt = material safety factor for the textile reinforcement

CONVERSION FACTORS

1 in. = 25.4 mm
1 ft = 0.3048 m
1 kip = 4.448 kN
1 ft-kip = 1.356 kN-m
1 psi = 6.89x10-3 MPa
Thin Reinforced Cement-Based Products 63
64 Hegger et al.

Fig. 1 — New extension of the testing hall of the Structural Concrete Institute

Fig. 2 — Sandwich elements and cladding panels out of textile reinforced concrete

Fig. 3 — Curtain wall construction of the Structural Concrete Institute

 Thin Reinforced Cement-Based Products 65

Fig. 4 — Geometry and experimental arrangement of the tensile tests

Fig. 5 — Test set-up of four-point-bending test and profile geometry

Fig. 6 — Reinforcement stress - strain of textile reinforced concrete element curves of

tensile tests
66 Hegger et al.

Fig. 7 — Reducing factors k0,á and k0 for MAG-07-03

Fig. 8 — Dimensions and reinforcement of textile reinforced concrete panels used

Fig. 9 — Bending moments in longitudinal direction of panels due to wind loading

 Thin Reinforced Cement-Based Products 67

Fig. 10 — Bending tests performed on textile reinforced concrete panels

Fig. 11 — Results of bending tests performed on textile reinforced concrete panels

Fig. 12 — Production of the textile reinforced concrete panels

68 Hegger et al.

Fig. 13 — Fixing technique of the curtain wall panels

Fig. 14 — Tests performed on the fixing dowels

 Thin Reinforced Cement-Based Products 69

Fig. 15 — Load bearing capacity of the fixing dowels

Fig. 16 — Sandwich elements used

70 Hegger et al.