INFLUENCE OF TRANSVERSE TENSION ON THE COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH OF CARBON REINFORCED CONCRETE

Textile CFRP (carbon fibre reinforced polymer) reinforcement enables the construction of thin-walled structures such as double-curved shell structures or girder webs with minimal concrete cover due to their insensitivity to corrosion. In contrast to the tensile and flexural behaviour, the capacity of the compression strut of the thin-walled carbon reinforced concrete (CRC) specimens and the influence of transverse tensile loading has not yet been investigated in detail. For steel reinforced concrete components, extensive research has shown a significant reduction of concrete compressive strength as a function of the principal tensile stress. For CRC a different behaviour under biaxial loading is expected compared to steel reinforced concrete. Therefore, the influence of transverse tension on the compressive behaviour of carbon reinforced concrete was investigated at the Institute of Structural Concrete (IMB) of RWTH Aachen University. This paper presents a literature review on the compressive strength of CRC and conventional test setups used to quantify the influence of transverse tension on the compressive strength of steel reinforced concrete. Based on these findings, a new test setup for the investigation of combined compressive and transverse tensile loading in CRC and first test results are presented.