SCIENCE CHINA

Technological Sciences
• RESEARCH PAPER • June 2010 Vol.53 No.6: 1700–1710
doi: 10.1007/s11431-010-3063-z

Analytical theory of flexural behavior of concrete beam reinforced

with textile-combined steel
XU ShiLang* & YIN ShiPing
Department of Civil Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China

Received May 22, 2009; accepted October 12, 2009

Textile-reinforced concrete (TRC) is a new high performance cementitious composite material, which not only has superior
corrosion resistance but also can effectively limit the development of concrete cracks and make the crack width and spacing of
concrete become smaller. However, due to the brittle feature of fiber materials, the TRC structural member has no distinct fail-
ure symptom when it arrives at its ultimate load. At the same time, ordinary reinforced concrete (RC) elements have large dead
weight and can not efficiently restrict the expansion of the main crack of structures because of the restriction of their special
cover thickness. In order to overcome the disadvantages of both the TRC and the RC, a new architecture reinforced with tex-
tile-combined steel is proposed in this study, making full use of the advantages of the above two structures. The cover concrete
at the tension zone of an RC element is partially replaced with TRC and thus the steel reinforcements replaced with textiles are
subtracted. Compared with the old one, the new structure has less dead weight and has the merits of service safety and good
durability. The flexural development process of the proper beam with this new structure is investigated in this paper and based
on the plane section assumption, analytical equations are derived by using nonlinear analysis theory, including the
load-carrying capacity at different stages and moment-curvature relationship and mid-span deflection during the entire loading
process. Comparison between the calculated and the experimental results reveals satisfactory agreement and thus verifies the
feasibility of the equations.

textile-reinforced concrete, limiting the crack, beam reinforced with textile-combined steel, flexural behavior, analytical
theory

Citation: Xu S L, Yin S P. Analytical theory of flexural behavior of concrete beam reinforced with textile-combined steel. Sci China Tech Sci, 2010, 53: 1−12,
doi: 10.1007/s11431-010-3063-z

Due to the brittle characteristics of concrete, the cracks of
the ordinary reinforced concrete (RC) structures extend up-
ward very quickly after cracking, and at the crack position,
the concrete is no longer to bear tension load and the strain
of the concrete will not be compatible with that of the steel
bar. This indicates that the interfacial bond between the
steel bar and the concrete near the crack has failed [1]. In
fact, failure of RC structures is often due to the local yield
of the steel bar at the crack location, but the tension strength
of the steel bar at other locations has not been fully utilized.
*Corresponding author (email: slxu@dlut.edu.cn)
After cracking, the concrete near the crack is broken, and
the steel bar will be exposed to the outside natural environ-
ment and be directly affected by the external water and me-
dia, resulting in the possibility of steel corrosion. This is
very detrimental to the durability of the steel bar [2, 3].
A large number of practices have proved that the steel
corrosion is a major factor in affecting the durability of the
RC structures [4]. Many surveys show that for the RC
member in the humid environment, the transverse crack
width up to 0.2 mm can cause the steel corrosion. The
products of the steel corrosion can lead to the expansion of
the longitudinal crack width, and the results of such a vi-

© Science China Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010 tech.scichina.com www.springerlink.com
 XU ShiLang, et al. Sci China Tech Sci
cious circle are bound to lead to a complete spalling of con-
crete cover and the ultimate destruction of RC structures. It
was reported that when the concrete cover thickness was 3
cm, the larger the crack width, the greater the corrosion
length rate was [5]. Generally, if the crack width was below
0.2 mm, the cross-section loss caused by the steel corrosion
is very slight and its effect on the tensile capacity of steel is
also very little [5]. The results from Wang [6] indicate that
the steel reinforcement reasonably placed by “small and
dense” method, adding the steel wire mesh or fiber rein-
forcement, is able to play a role in avoiding the stress con-
centration, namely reducing the stress concentration effect,
and thus the concrete can continue to bearing tension load
even if it has micro-cracks, and ultimately the cracking re-
sistance of the structure can be improved. This method of
dispersing cracks and controlling them in harmless range is
known as “crack dispersed effect”.
There is causality between the failure of the RC structure
and the crack propagation. The emergence of the crack
leads to the deterioration of the structural performance and
the extension of the crack causes the gradual destruction of
the structure [2]. Every crack extension corresponds to a
deterioration of the structure performance, and therefore if
the cracking of the component can be delayed one load
grade, the structural performance will be improved one grade.
The later the cracks occur, the more significant the improve-
ment of the structural performance is. This is the principle
applied to pre-stressed concrete [7]. However, for ordinary
reinforced concrete or prestressed concrete structures, the
steel bar will not fully play its function to prevent the crack
development once the concrete cracks. Therefore [7], if
its cracking load can be improved, and meanwhile the ex-
tension of the crack is able to be significantly delayed, the
concrete component will have not only a good anti-crack
capacity but also a substantially increased bearing capacity,
and then the service performance and durability of this
component are better. However, the prestressed concrete
technology can not enhance the ultimate bearing capacity of
the structures if the strength grades of the concrete and the
steel are not improved
Welded wire fabric can play a role in controlling the de-
velopment of cracks [8–10]. Mansur [9] found that smooth
welded wire fabric could improve the crack pattern and de-
crease the crack width; compared with the smooth one, de-
formed welded wire mesh could further reduce the maxi-
mum crack width. According to Perry and Joost [10], under
the condition of the same quantity of reinforcement, the
control action of welded wire fabric on cracks in deep
beams (including bending and inclined cracks) was superior
to other forms of reinforcement arrangement because of the
smaller-diameter and more closely spaced reinforced bars.
Researches from Wang et al. [11] and Li et al. [12] indicated
that allocating the skin reinforcement in concrete cover
could reduce the average crack spacing and the maximum
crack width. Nassif and Najm [13] investigated the crack
June (2010) Vol.53 No.6 1701
control of the ferrocement. A certain amount shear studs
were embedded in the interface between the concrete and
the ferrocement to ensure the both to work cooperatively
when pouring concrete after ferrocement hardening. The
results from Al-Kubaisy and Jumaat [14] showed that com-
pared with similar slabs with normal concrete cover, the
simply supported reinforced concrete slabs with ferro-
cement tension zone cover had higher stiffness, higher first
crack moment, smaller crack width and crack spacing, but
the ultimate bearing capacity increased a little. The steel
wire mesh could play a better role if it was combined with
the short-fiber, resulting in a more uniform crack distribu-
tion in the component [15, 16].
However, no matter whether the constructional rein-
forcement or the steel (wire) fabric is used, the problem of
the steel corrosion is inevitable, and thus a certain cover
thickness is required. The concrete cover to the steel rein-
forcement influences the flexural crack width. The thicker
the cover is, the wider the cracks at the surface. Therefore,
there is a need to reduce the cover thickness as much as
possible. However, environmental factors, on the other hand,
have led many codes of practice to place a minimum limit
on the concrete cover. Thus there generates a conflict be-
tween the crack width control and the durability require-
ment, which needs a rational solution. The development of
textile-reinforced concrete (TRC) has brought a viable op-
tion to this problem.
TRC is a new high performance cementitious composite
material consisting of multi-axial textile reinforcement
made with advanced textile technology and fine-grained
concrete [17]. It has excellent ability of bearing and limiting
cracks, as is shown in Figure 1. Due to the wonderful corro-
sion resistance of fiber materials (e.g. alkali-resistant
(AR-glass), carbon, aramid, basalt), the concrete cover is no
longer needed as a chemical protection [18]. The thickness
of TRC members depends primarily on the necessary value
Figure 1 Bending deflection of thin plate of TRC.
1702 XU ShiLang, et al.
to ensure a proper anchorage of the reinforcement and to
avoid splitting failure [18]. These features make TRC be
widely used in the structure or the cladding material, the
production of panels, and treating various forms of cracks in
the concrete.
The results from many researchers who have focused on
using TRC to strengthen existing structures indicated that
the way of using TRC to enhance structures was very effec-
tive [19–23]. By using TRC [19–23], the bearing capacity
of structures can be improved and the extension of struc-
tural cracks can be restricted, at the same time, a series of
drawbacks of fiber reinforced polymers (FRP) are overcome.
However, this way of strengthening can not fundamentally
change the structure properties and may increase the dead
weigh of existing structures to a certain extent.
Based on the existing results and from the point of struc-
ture design, this study tried to apply the textile to the RC
structures which will be built. In Figure 2, 1 is for fine
grained concrete, 2 is for the textile, 3 is for main steel re-
inforcement, 4 is for stirrups, 5 is for formwork, 6 is for
concrete and 7 is for the interface between concrete and fine
grained concrete. In this component, the steel bar is still the
main bearing body and the textile is only used as the secon-
dary bearing body. The relative limit height between the
proper beam and overreinforced beam is still determined
according to the design of ordinary RC beam; however, in
actual design, considering the force borne by the textile, on
the basis of the conventional limit reinforcement, the steel
reinforcements replaced with textiles should be subtracted
in order to avoid the overreinforced failure. Compared with
the RC structure strengthened with TRC, in this component,
the fine grained concrete is cast before the concrete harden-
ing and thus their interfacial bond is very strong. Therefore
they can be considered as a whole. In addition, the cover
concrete at the tension zone of an RC element is partially
replaced with TRC and the steel reinforcements replaced
with textiles are subtracted, the latter can contribute to the
Figure 2 Schematic diagram of section of structure.
Sci China Tech Sci June (2010) Vol.53 No.6
decrease of the dead weight of the component. The mini-
mum cover thickness can be appropriately reduced due to
the good crack resistance capacity and corrosion resistance
of fiber. In short, this member has some advantages includ-
ing less weight, high performance-cost ratio, corrosion-
resistant, service safety, good durability, etc.
The purpose of this study is to analyze the flexural be-
havior of the proper beam reinforced with textile-combined
steel during the entire loading process from loading to fail-
ure, and present the analytical equations, including the
load-carrying and deformation capacity of the normal sec-
tion at different stages and the moment-curvature relation-
ship during the entire loading process. Finally, the feasibil-
ity of the equations will be verified.
1 Analytical theory of flexural behavior of
concrete proper beam reinforced with textile-
combined steel
1.1 Fundamental assumptions
1) Cross-section deformation accords with the plane section
assumption; 2) the relative slip between the textile and the
fine grained concrete, and between the longitudinal main
steel bar and the concrete, is not considered, that is, the sec-
tion stress and strain are continuous; 3) the impact of sec-
ondary (warp) yarns is neglected; 4) the section curvature in
pure bending segment remains unchanged; 5) the curvature
and bending moment in whole span conforms to one-to-one
correspondence; 6) the beam has no displacement along the
span direction.
1.2 Material constitutive equation
For the interaction of the bending moment M and axial
force N, although the compressive and tensile normal stress,
which are along the section of beam (slab) and column (wall)
elements, are unevenly distributed, they are at one-dimen-
sional stress state, and therefore the uniaxial constitutive
relations of the steel bar, the textile and the concrete can be
used when the non-linear analysis is carried out [1, 24].
1.2.1 Tensile constitutive equation of yarn
Because most yarns used as reinforcement materials consist
of thousands of filaments, the fine grained concrete cannot
penetrate deeply into the bundle between the filaments.
When the yarns are loaded, the filaments can not coopera-
tively bear the load and will rupture in batches, which
causes the tensile strength of filaments not to be fully util-
ized. However, this can be changed if the textile is impreg-
nated with epoxy resin before it is embedded into the con-
crete[25–27]. According to the code GB/T 3362-2005 (Ten-
sion experiment method of carbon multifilament), the me-
chanical properties of the impregnated carbon yarns were
 XU ShiLang, et al. Sci China Tech Sci June (2010) Vol.53 No.6 1703

measured, which are shown in Figure 3. bearing load alone, for the thin-plate specimens reinforced
However, when the yarn is embedded into the concrete, with one layer of the textile in the separate tensile tests of
its stress-strain relationship will be influenced by the con- this study, εfy is 0.0002–0.0003; σfy is the stress of the yarn
crete [28]. The tensile stress of the concrete is far less than corresponding to εfy; parameters m and k , which are related
the tensile strength of the yarn, and during its degradation to εfy, are obtained by
process after cracking, its tensile stress is almost zero and
can be ignored compared with that of the yarn. Therefore, ⎧ σ fu − σ fy
⎪m = σ fy − ε ,
the stress vs. strain curves of the yarns, which were obtained ⎪ ε fu − ε fy fy
⎨ (2)
by doing uniaxial tension tests on the TRC thin plates, can
⎪k = σ fu − σ fy .
be simplified as the curve shown in Figure 4. Due to the ⎪
⎩ ε fu − ε fy
restriction effect of the concrete, before the yarn bears the
load alone, the stiffness of the yarn is much larger than that The stress vs. strain curve shown in Figure 4 is obtained
determined before it is embedded into the concrete. The ten- by using the specimens reinforced with one layer of textile.
sile strain εfy of the yarn should be higher than the critical For different specimens with different layers of textiles or
crack strain εt0 of the concrete because it needs a process in different type of yarns, εfy and σfy will be different. Hence,
which the tensile stress of the concrete gradually falls to zero when the stress vs. strain curve is used for bending calcula-
after cracking due to the role of the concrete cohesive force. tion, appropriate adjustment is needed.
The stress-strain constitutive relations presented in Fig-
ure 4 are as follows 1.2.2 Compression constitutive equation of concrete
The compression constitutive model of concrete proposed
⎧⎪σ f = ε f σ fy / ε fy (0 ≤ ε f ≤ ε fy ), by Chinese Standard (GB 50010-2002) [29], which is shown
⎨ (1)
⎪⎩ σ f = m + k ε f (ε fy < ε f ≤ ε fu ), in Figure 5, is used and the mechanical control parameters
in the model are obtained by actual measurement.
where σf is the tensile stress of the yarn; εfu is the ultimate
⎧σ = f ⎡1 − (1 − ε / ε )2 ⎤ (0 ≤ ε c ≤ ε 0 ),
tensile strain of the yarn; σfu is the ultimate tensile strength ⎪ c c
⎣ c 0
⎦
⎨ (3)
of the yarn; ε fy is the strain of the yarn at the moment of ⎪⎩ σ c = f c (ε 0 < ε c ≤ ε cu ),

where σc is the compressive stress of the concrete; εc is the

compressive strain of the concrete; ε0 is the strain when the
load arrives at compressive strength fc; εcu is the ultimate
compression strain.

1.2.3 Tensile constitutive equation of concrete

By assuming that concrete cannot undertake tensile stress
anymore once tensile strength of concrete is achieved, the
constitutive relation is given as follows.

⎧σ t = ε t f t / ε t0 (0 ≤ ε t ≤ ε t0 ),
⎨ (4)
Figure 3 Stress-strain relationship of yarn impregnated by epoxy resin. ⎩ σt = 0 (ε t > ε t0 ),

where σt is the tensile stress of the concrete; εt is the tensile

Figure 4 Stress-strain relationship of yarn obtained by uniaxial tensile

test of TRC-thin plate specimens. Figure 5 Compressive constitutive relation of concrete.
1704 XU ShiLang, et al.
strain of the concrete; εt0 is the tensile strain corresponding
to the tensile strength ft.
1.2.4 Tensile constitutive equation of steel bar
After the formation of plastic hinge of the RC structures, the
ultimate deformation of the concrete at the plastic section
seldom exceeds the value 0.006 and thus even if the defor-
mation of the tensile steel bar exceeds the yield platform and
enters the hardening stage, it can not reach a great range [30]
and its effect may not be considered [31]. Therefore, the
stress-strain relationship of the steel is evaluated by a bilin-
ear model which describes a totally elastic-plastic charac-
teristic [29, 31], which is shown in Figure 6.
⎧⎪σ s = f y ε s / ε y (0 ≤ ε s ≤ ε y ),
⎨ (5)
⎪⎩ σ s = f y (ε y < ε s ≤ ε su ),
where σs is the tensile stress of the steel; εs is the tensile
strain of the steel; fy is the yielding strength of the steel; εy is
the strain corresponding to fy; εsu is the ultimate tensile
strain of steel.
1.3 Analysis on flexural behavior of the normal section
for the concrete proper beam reinforced with textile-
combined steel
The thickness of the fine grained concrete layer is generally
10–20 mm, which is much smaller than the section depth of
the component. In addition, the strength grades of the fine
grained concrete and the concrete are very close, and their
related mechanical parameters have no significant differ-
ence. Therefore, they can be considered as a whole.
Based on the results from Xu et al. [32, 33], similar to
RC proper beams, the concrete proper beam reinforced with
textile-combined steel also undergoes three distinct stages
during the entirely bending process from loading to failure
according to the characteristics of its sectional stress and
strain. Stage I is the elastic stage before the matrix cracks,
and at this stage there are no cracks in the tension zone of
the beam and the component is at the condition without
cracks due to the low applied load. Stage II is the stage from
Figure 6 Tension constitutive relation of steel bar.
Sci China Tech Sci June (2010) Vol.53 No.6
the concrete cracking to the longitudinal tensile steel yield-
ing, which is the service stage with cracks. Stage III is the
stage beginning with the yield of steel reinforcement and
ending in the failure of the beam. The following will present
the calculation equations of section internal forces for each
stage according to the distributions of stress and strain for
different stages.
1.3.1 Calculation of section internal forces
Assume that the compression zone height of the beam is hc,
and that concrete compression strain at the top surface of
the beam is εc. On the basis of the plane section assumption
the maximum tensile strain of the concrete at tension zone,
steel strain and textile strain can be respectively determined
as follows:
ε t = ( h − hc ) ε c / hc , (6)
ε f = ( hf − hc ) ε c / hc , (7)
ε s = ( h0 − hc ) ε c / hc . (8)
If the compressive strain εc of edge concrete is given,
then hc and M can be obtained by the following equations,
∑N = Fc − Ft − Fs − Ff = 0 , (9)
where Fc is the resultant force of compression zone concrete
determined by eq. (12); Ft is the resultant force of tension
zone concrete determined by eq. (17); Fs is the resultant
force of tensile steel determined by eq. (18); Ff is the resul-
tant force of tensile textile determined by eq. (19).
The resultant moment of all internal forces on the neutral
axis is determined by
Fc ( hc − k2 hc ) + Ft ( 2 / 3) ht + Fs ( h0 − hc ) + Ff ( hf − hc ) = M ,
(10)
where k2 is the ratio of the action point distance of Fc and
the compression zone height; ht is the tension zone height
determined by eq. (11); h0 is the distance from the resultant
force action point of the tensile steel to the edge of com-
pression zone concrete; hf is the distance from the resultant
force action point of the tensile textile to the edge of com-
pression zone concrete.
⎧ ht = h − hc (0 ≤ ε t ≤ ε t0 ),
⎨ (11)
⎩ht = ε t0 hc / ε c (ε t0 < ε t ),
where h is for the sectional height of the component.
i) The calculation of Fc and its distance yc to the edge of
compression zone concrete
hc
Fc = ∫ bσ c ( x )dx = k1bhc f c , (12)
0
 XU ShiLang, et al. Sci China Tech Sci June (2010) Vol.53 No.6 1705

where σ c ( x ) is the compressive stress of the concrete; 1.3.2 Elastic stage (stage I)

b is the sectional width; k1 is determined by At this stage, since applied external load is usually low, the
internal force on the section is very small, the stress is pro-
⎧⎪k1 = ε c / ε 0 − ε c2 / 3ε 02 (0 ≤ ε c ≤ ε 0 ), portional to the strain and the value of the stress linearly
⎨ (13) changes, as shown in Figure 7. The steel bar, textile and
⎪⎩ k1 = 1 − ε 0 / 3ε c (ε 0 < ε c ≤ ε cu ),
concrete all behave elastically and have no residual defor-
The area moment S of the Fc action point to the compres- mation after unloading. At this moment, the relationship
sion zone edge can be obtained by between sectional curvature or mid-span deflection and the
hc
moment is almost linear. For the singly reinforced concrete
S = ∫ σ ( x )b ( hc − y ) dy. (14) beam discussed, the sectional pressure is borne by the con-
0 crete at the compressive zone and the sectional tensile force
is borne by the concrete at the tensile zone, the steel bar and
Then the distance yc can be determined by eqs. (12) and the textile. The strain of the section increases with the in-
(14) as crease of the applied load. Tensile strength of the concrete
yc = S / Fc = k2 hc , (15) in tensile zone is far lower than compressive strength of the
where k2 is given as follows, concrete, therefore the concrete in tensile zone exhibits
plastic characteristic earlier than compressive concrete.
⎧ 4ε 0 − ε c
⎪ k2 = 12ε − 4ε (0 ≤ ε c ≤ ε 0 ), When the maximum tensile stress σ tb in tension zone
⎪ 0 c
⎨ (16) reaches the tensile strength of concrete and the maximum
⎪ 3 − ε 2
0 / (
2ε c2 ) (ε 0 < ε c ≤ ε cu ). tensile strain of the concrete reaches the strain εt0, the first
⎪k2 = 1 − 6 − ( 2ε ) / ε
⎩ 0 c vertical fracture will appear at the weakest location in the
pure bending zone of the beam and the elastic stage ends.
ii) Calculation of Ft The load at this point is named as initial cracking load Pcr
Because of the crack resistance capacity of the textile, and the corresponding moment is defined as initial cracking
the main cracks of concrete in the tension zone develop moment Mcr.
slowly and in some other weak points the new minor cracks
There are three characteristics at elastic stage: i) the
will appear. Therefore, before the tensile strain of the con-
stress distribution of concrete in compressive and tensile
crete arrives at εt0, the tensile stress of the concrete should zones is in triangle shape; ii) the tension force is undertaken
be considered. Ft is determined by the following equations by the concrete in tensile zone, the steel and the textile; iii)
that are obtained by integration of eq. (4). the relationship between curvature and moment or between
deflection and load behaves approximately linearly.
⎪⎧ Ft = 0.5 f t ( ε t / ε t0 ) b ( h − hc ) (0 ≤ ε t ≤ ε t0 ),
⎨ (17) Substituting eqs. (6), (7), (8), (12), (17), (18) and (19)
⎪⎩ Ft = 0.5 f t ( ε t0 / ε t ) b ( h − hc ) (ε t0 < ε t ).
into eq. (9) yields eq. (20). If the value of εc is determined,
iii) Calculation of Fs the height of compression zone hc will be obtained by solv-
ing eq. (20),
⎧⎪ Fs = ( ε s / ε y ) f y As (0 ≤ ε s ≤ ε y ),
⎨ (18) Ahc2 + Bhc + C = 0 , (20)
⎪⎩ Fs = f y As (ε y < ε s ≤ ε su ),
where
where As is the cross-sectional area of steel bars.
iv) Calculation of Ff ⎛ 3ε 2 ⎞
A = ( 3ε 0 − ε c ) f c b − ⎜ 0 ⎟ f t b ,
Even for multi-layer arrangement of textile, the thickness ⎝ 2ε t0 ⎠
of the fine grained concrete layer should be no more than 20
mm, including 2–3 mm contact layer with the concrete and
3–5 mm cover. Moreover, 2–3 mm spacing between textiles
is enough for transferring the interfacial stress. Therefore,
the resultant force of the textile can be calculated by the
average tensile strain of the yarns.

⎧⎪ Ff = ε f σ fy Af / ε fy (0 ≤ ε f ≤ ε fy ),
⎨ (19)
⎪⎩ Ff = ( m + k ε f ) Af (ε fy < ε f ≤ ε fu ),

where εf is the average tensile strain of the yarns; Af is the Figure 7 Distributions of strain and stress of beam reinforced with tex-
total cross-sectional area of the yarns. tile-combined steel before cracking.
1706 XU ShiLang, et al.
⎡⎛ f ⎞ ⎛ fy ⎞ ⎛ σ fy
B = 3ε 02 ⎢⎜ t ⎟ bh + ⎜⎜ ⎟⎟ As + ⎜⎜
⎢⎣⎝ ε t0 ⎠ ⎝ εy ⎠ ⎝ ε fy
⎡⎛ f ⎞ 2 ⎛ fy ⎞ ⎛ σ fy
C = −3ε 02 ⎢⎜ t ⎟ bh + ⎜⎜ ⎟⎟ As h0 + ⎜⎜
⎣⎢⎝ 2ε t0 ⎠ ⎝ εy ⎠ ⎝ ε fy
When the maximum tensile strain of the concrete at ten-
sion zone reaches εt0, the concrete cracks. At this moment,
the compressive strain εc of edge concrete can be deter-
mined by
ε c = hcε t0 /(h − hc ) ,
hc can be determined by substituting eq. (21) into eq. (20),
and the initial cracking moment Mcr can be obtained by
solving eq. (10).
1.3.3 Service stage with cracks (stage II)
After it reaches the initial-cracking state, the beam will en-
ter the service stage with cracks, namely stage II, if it con-
tinues to be loaded. When the beam just enters the second
stage, the sectional stress will redistribute and the tensile
stress of the concrete at the crack will gradually reduce to
zero, part of which will be transferred to the textile. The
process of force transfer during which the tensile stress of
the strands will gradually reach the stress σfy is very short.
As a result of strong restriction of the textile on the concrete
crack, the trend of the first crack extending upward along
the beam height will be slowed down, at the same time, the
yarns will play their role of fiber-bridge, and transfer the
tensile stress to the surrounding concrete material. The sec-
ond crack will appear when the initial cracking strength of
the concrete arrives again, and then the sectional stress of
the concrete at the tensile zone will redistribute once again.
The tensile stress at the first crack will be released partly
and the tensile stress concentration will appear at the second
crack, and then the stress at this position will also be trans-
ferred by the textile. Repetition of this process will create
the well-known phenomenon of multi-cracking in the pure
bending segment. The distribution of the stress and strain in
this stage, which is from the initial cracking to the point of
the yarn strain reaching εfy, is shown in Figure 8. At this
moment, part of concrete at tension zone is out of work
With the increase of the applied load, some crack will
pass over the textile and reach steel reinforcement, and then
the curvature and the deflection of the beam will have a
sudden increase. That is to say, the first turning point of the
curve of moment vs. curvature appears. The tensile stress of
the steel also has a sharp increase and is transferred to the
surrounding concrete through adhesive force, making the
cracks continue to develop upward to pass over the textile.
Due to the brittle characteristics of concrete, the cracks ex-
tend to the compressive zone very quickly, but the further
expansion of the cracks will be prevented by the role of the
compressive stress of the concrete at compression zone and
Sci China Tech Sci June (2010) Vol.53 No.6
⎞ ⎤
⎟⎟ Af ⎥ ,
⎠ ⎦⎥
⎞ ⎤
⎟⎟ Af hf ⎥ .
⎠ ⎦⎥
Figure 8 Distributions of strain and stress of beam reinforced with tex-
tile-combined steel after the roving in TRC bears the load by itself.
(21) the constraint of the textile on the crack mouth further
opening. Other new cracks of the concrete will appear
through the stress transfer by the steel and the textile; this
process will repeat until the strain of the steel reinforcement
reaches its yield strain. At this stage, with the continual
emergence of the cracks, the stiffness of the beam reduces,
and the deformation accelerates, and the concrete at the
compression zone shows the significant plastic deformation
and the curve of the stress vs. strain presents the curve
change. With a further increase in applied load, the cracks
will further expand and the curvature will also further in-
crease. When the tensile stress of the steel bar just reaches
its yield strength with the applied moment increasing, the
second significant turning point of the curve of moment vs.
curvature appears, and stage II ends and the corresponding
moment is defined as the yield moment My.
Concrete cracks occur and develop during stage II and
the beam is to work with cracks at the stage. The main
characteristics at this stage include: i) just cracking and the
development of micro-cracks, the tensile stress at the crack
location is borne by the textile; ii) when the cracks pass
over the textile, the most of the concrete in the tension zone
do not bear tensile force, which is mainly borne by the steel
bar and the textile; iii) the concrete at the compression zone
shows significant plastic characteristics, but the compres-
sive strain at the top edge of the concrete has not yet
reached its ultimate compression strain and the stress dia-
gram approximately presents the parabolic shape; iv) the
relation of moment vs. curvature becomes nonlinear from
the linear relation in stage I.
The whole process analysis on this stage can be realized
through eqs. (6) to (19) programmed with the Matlab soft-
ware, and this study only presents the calculation equations
for My. When the longitudinal tensile steel bar reaches its
yield strength, the tensile force of the concrete can be ig-
nored because it is far less than those borne by the steel bar
and the textile. At this state, the concrete at the compression
zone is at the elastic-plastic service stage, and the strain of
the edge concrete may be at two different conditions: one is
ε c ≤ ε 0 , as shown in Figure 9(a) and the other is
ε 0 < ε c < ε cu , as shown in Figure 9(b).
Similarly, substituting eqs. (6), (7), (8), (12), (18) and
 XU ShiLang, et al. Sci China Tech Sci
Figure 9 Distributions of strain and stress of beam reinforced with tex-
tile-combined steel before failure.
(19) into eq. (9) yields eqs. (22) and (23). Solving eq. (22)
or eq. (23) obtains the height of compression zone hc, and
then the yield moment My can be determined by eq. (10).
i) Case one ( ε s = ε y , ε c ≤ ε 0 )
Dhc2 + Ehc + F = 0, (22)
where
(
D = bf c 3ε cε 0 − ε c2 ) ; E = −3ε 02 ⎡⎣ f y Ay + ( m − k ε c ) Af ⎤⎦
F = −3ε 02 k ε c Af hf .
ii) Case two ( ε s = ε y , ε 0 < ε c ≤ ε cu )
Ghc2 + Hhc + I = 0, (23)
where G = bf c ( 3ε c − ε 0 ) ; H = −3ε c ⎡⎣ f y As + ( m − k ε c ) Af ⎤⎦ ;
I = −3ε c2 kAf hf .
1.3.4 Failure stage (Stage III)
For the concrete proper beam reinforced with textile-
combined steel, when the longitudinal tension reinforce-
ment is at the critical yield state, the beam will enter stage
III if the applied load is further increased. In this stage, the
main characteristics include: i) the deflection and curvature
of the section increase abruptly because the tensile stress of
the steel reinforcement almost remains unchanged while the
tensile strain is increasing gradually; ii) the main crack
width continuously enlarges and extends upward along the
height direction of the beam, and the height of compression
zone further decreases, and the neutral axis continues mov-
ing up and the stress in compressive zone gradually tends to
the plump shape; iii) the tensile stress of the textile in-
creases quickly and the arm of internal force becomes
longer due to the shifting outwards of the action point of
June (2010) Vol.53 No.6 1707
resultant force in the compressive zone, and thus the ulti-
mate load of the beam is much larger than the yielding load;
iv) the curve of the moment vs. curvature presents signifi-
cantly upward trend comparing with the ordinary reinforced
concrete proper beam. Particularly, for the beam with ap-
propriate ratio of the textile, when the tensile strain of the
textile reaches its ultimate strain εfu, the strain of the edge
concrete at compressive zone arrives at its ultimate com-
pression strain εcu, and the concrete is crushed. At this mo-
ment, the beam is at the ultimate failure state and the corre-
sponding moment is defined as the failure moment Mu. The
distribution of stress vs. strain is similar to the distribution
in stage II, and hence the whole process analysis on this
stage can be also realized through the eqs. (6) to (19) pro-
grammed with the Matlab software. At this state, hc can be
determined with eq. (24), and then Mu can be obtained by
substituting hc into eq. (10).
( )
hc = 3ε cu f y As + σ fu Af / f c b ( 3ε cu − ε 0 ) . (24)
1.4 Determination of M-φ relationship of the concrete
proper beam reinforced with textile- combined steel
In order to obtain the M-φ relationship of the beam during
the entirely bending process, the moment M and the corre-
sponding curvature ϕ at a different time need to be deter-
mined. At a given time t , if the strain of the edge concrete
at compressive zone is ε c ( t ) , then the tensile strains of the
;
concrete at tension zone, the steel bar and the textile can be
obtained by eqs. (6), (7) and (8), respectively. When ε c ( t )
gradually increases from zero, according to the above
analysis, the height hc(t) and the moment M(t) can be de-
termined by eqs. (9) and (10), respectively. Then, by using
the equation φ ( t ) = ε c ( t ) / hc ( t ) , the corresponding section
curvature is easily determined. Thus, a series of scattered
points of the moment vs. the corresponding curvature can be
obtained. Finally, the curve of M-φ relationship of the
proper beam is determined.
1.5 Calculation of mid-span deflection of the beam
reinforced with textile-combined steel
In order to simplify the calculation, the following influences
are neglected: 1) the increased stiffness of the component
caused by the concrete between the cracks, which bears
some tensile force; 2) the additional deflection caused by
diagonal cracks as a result of the shear stress and the
bond-slip deformation between the steel bar or textile and
the concrete. According to the method proposed by Long
and Bao [34] to predict the deflection of the component by
the moment diagram, the maximum mid-span deflection of
the beam can be determined by using the scattered points on
the M-φ curve.
1708 XU ShiLang, et al.
Figure 10 presents the schematic diagram of the bending
deformation. It can be seen that the relative rotation angle of
the micro-segment dx is equal to dθ, and the tangents to the
ends of the deformation curve are drew respectively, and the
vertical distance ΔA' B between the tangent to point B and
the tangent to point A can be determined by
A B M (r ) B vature curve from point A to point C to the vertical axis
ΔA' B = ∫ rdθ = ∫ −r dx = − ∫ rϕ ( r )dx,
B A E (r ) I (r ) A
where φ ( r ) is the curvature at the point whose distance to
B
point B is r; ∫A rϕ ( r )dx may be considered as the area
moment, which is the moment of the area under the curve of
the curvature vs. the distance to point B to the vertical axis
passing point B.
Thus the deflection ωB of point B can be given by
B equations needs to be verified.
ωB = ω A + θ Al AB + ΔA' B = ω A + θ Al AB − ∫ rϕ ( r )dx.
A All beams were rectangular with 120 mm width, 210 mm
For the simply supported beam bearing two symmetrical
concentrated forces in this study, as shown in Figure 11, the
rotation angle of point C having the maximum deflection is
equal to zero due to the equation θC = dωC / dx = 0 . Thus, the
deflection at point A relative to point C may be obtained by
C
ω A = ωC − ∫ rϕ ( r )dx.
A as follows: εfu=0.021, σfu=3600 MPa, Af' =0.45 mm2; for
Combining the deflection of point A ( ω A = 0 ) with eq.
Figure 10 Schematic diagram of bending deformation.
Figure 11 Schematic test setup for a four-point bending test.
Sci China Tech Sci June (2010) Vol.53 No.6
(27), the deflection of point C may be determined by
C
ωC = ∫ rϕ ( r )dx. (28)
A
It can be seen from eq. (28) that the maximum deflection
at point C is namely the moment of the area under the cur-
(25) passing point A.
2 Validation of the equations
In the first section, the equations for calculating the bearing
capacity of the normal section at different stages and the
mid-span deflection during the entire loading process are
presented, which provide a theoretical basis for design and
calculation of this new structure. Hence, the validity of the
(26) For this purpose, five simply supported beams were test.
total depth and 2000 mm total length. The placed numbers
of the textile were in the range of one to three. The hybrid
textile made up of carbon and E-glass yarns were used. The
mesh size of the textile was 10 mm×10 mm, and there were
10 bundles of yarns each layer. The epoxy resin-impreg-
nated textile was used in the study and the carbon yarn was
used for bearing the load. The parameters of the yarn were
(27)
the specimens with one layer of textile: εfy=0.025%,
σfy=1350 MPa; for the specimens with two or three layers
of textile: σfy=0.03%, σfy=1050 MPa. The longitudinal
reinforcement in all beams consisted of two HRB335 steel
bars with 12 mm in diameter, which had a measured yield
strength of 395 MPa. The cover thickness a was 25 mm
which included a 10 mm thickness layer of TRC and the
cover thickness of textile was 3 mm to 5 mm for various lay-
ers. The HPB235 steel was used for the stirrups, the diameter
and the spacing of which were 6.5 mm and 80 mm, respec-
tively and there were not stirrups in pure bending segment.
The actual measured yield strength of stirrups was 320 MPa.
The parameters of the concrete were as follows: ε0=0.002,
fc= 40 MPa, εfu=0.0038, ft=2.5 MPa, and εt0=0.01%.
A four-point loading fixture with an 1800-mm span and a
600-mm constant bending moment zone was used, as shown
in Figure 11. The specimens were loaded with using an
electro-hydraulic test machine with a maximum capacity of
100 t. The multi-stage loading was adopted in the test. At
the bottom surface of the pure bending segment, the initial
crack load was obtained with strain gauges. The applied
load was determined with a load sensor and the mid-span
deflection was measured with two LVDTs positioned under
the mid-span section. The based data acquisition system
was IMC (Integrated Measurement & Control) produced in
 XU ShiLang, et al.
Germany. Figure 12 shows the experimental and calculated
load vs. mid-span deflection curves. Figures 12(a), (b) and
(c) present the curves of the beams with one layer of textile,
two layers of textile and three layers of textile, respectively.
According to the theoretic analysis on the proper beam in
the first section, the corresponding program was prepared
for obtaining the bearing capacities of the normal section
and the mid-span deflections at different stages. The curves
of the load vs. the mid-span deflection during the entire
loading process can be obtained by inputting the character-
istic geometric parameters of the beam and the basic me-
chanical parameters of materials. It can be seen from Figure
12 that the calculated values coincide with the experimental
results very well, and the ultimate bearing capacity of the
beam significantly increases after the steel bars has yielded
by using TRC. Figure 13 shows the development of the
Figure 12 Experimental and calculated curves of load vs. mid-span de-
flection of beams reinforced with textile-combined steel.
Sci China Tech Sci June (2010) Vol.53 No.6 1709
Figure 13 Development of the cracks of the beam reinforced with tex-
tile-combined steel before critical failure.
cracks of the beam with two layers of the textile before
critical failure. As seen from Figure 13, there are at least
two or three much smaller cracks in the fine grained con-
crete layer below the concrete cracks. This attributes to
that the textiles play their role of fiber-bridge, leading to
not only limiting the development of the concrete cracks
but also effectively dispersing the harmful wide cracks
into much smaller cracks. During the experiment progress,
no matter how much layers of textile was placed, there
were no micro-cracks at the interface between the concrete
and the fine grained concrete, and the local interface de-
fects between the concrete and the fine grained concrete
were caused by demoulding. Therefore, using this com-
posite structure can not only improve the performance of
the steel bar and the concrete in cooperative working but
also enhance the durability and the service performance of
the structures. In short, this is a type of combined en-
hancement component having great significance for de-
velopment.
3 Conclusions
From the point of structural optimization design, a new
structure reinforced with textile-combined steel is proposed,
which makes full use of the advantages of the TRC and the
RC. Based on the flexural design theory of the RC structure,
this study has investigated on the calculation theory for the
flexural component reinforced with the epoxy resin-
impregnated textile-combined with the steel bar. The char-
acteristics of the bearing capacities of the normal section at
different stages during the entire loading process have been
presented and based on the plane assumption and the
nonlinear analysis theory, the calculation equations at every
stage have been determined, including the specific calcula-
tion equations for obtaining the initial crack load, the yield
load and the failure load, as well as the methods to deter-
mine the moment-curvature relationship and mid-span de-
flection during the entire loading process. Finally, the ra-
tionality of the equations has been verified.
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Key
Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.
50438010).
1710 XU ShiLang, et al. Sci China Tech Sci
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