Tetrahedral Profiled Carbon Rovings for Concrete Reinforcements

Textile reinforcements have established themselves as a convincing alternative to conventional steel reinforcements in the building industry. Due to their high load-bearing capacities in addition to a smaller concrete cross section required, the bond between textile and concrete is extremely important. In contrast to ribbed steel bars ensuring a stable mechanical interlock with concrete (form fit), the bond force of carbon rovings has so far been transmitted primarily via the coating of the textile, i.e. by an adhesive bond with the concrete matrix (material fit). However, this material fit must be activated over relatively large yarn areas, which does not allow material-efficient utilization of the mechanical load capacity of the textile reinforcement. Solutions involving profiled rovings promise significant improvements in the bonding behavior by creating an additional mechanical interlock with the concrete matrix. In order to achieve a form-fit effect between roving and concrete, a roving geometry inspired by ribbed steel bars has to be created. For this purpose, an innovative profiling process was developed and implemented.