Single fibre-to-mortar bond characterization in TRM composites

Abstract

Textile-reinforced mortars (TRM) have been identified as sustainable materials for externally bonded reinforcement (EBR) of masonry and historical structures. The fibre-to-mortar bond, the TRM-to-masonry bond, and the mechanical properties of the TRM constituents have a fundamental role in the performance of this strengthening technique. Although several studies can be found in the literature with the focus on characterization of the tensile response and TRM-to-masonry bond behaviour, the fibre-to-mortar bond response that plays a critical role in the performance of these systems have received few attention. This paper, as a step towards addressing the gap in characterization of the fibre-to-mortar bond behaviour, presents an experimental and analytical investigation on the effect of test setup and fiber embedded length on the pull-out response and bond-slip laws in TRM composites. Three different pull-out test setups, consisting of one pull-pull and two pull-push configurations, are developed and investigated for characterization of the single fibre- to-mortar bond behaviour. The experimental and analytical results are discussed and presented and bond-slip laws are extracted for each test setup and embedded length.