Textile reinforced cement composites for the design of very thin saddle shells: A case study

The reinforcement of a specifically developed fine grained cement matrix with glass fibre textiles in high fibre volume fractions creates a composite that has -besides its usual compressive strength - an important tensile capacity. This cement composite is particularly suitable for strongly curved lightweight structures. These building applications do not only benefit from the cement composite's flexible reinforcement and high mechanical capacities, but more importantly they take advantage of the cement composite's fire safety. This paper evaluates the application of textile reinforced cement (TRC) composites in small span shell structures. Omitting the need for steel reinforcement and thus concrete cover, TRC composite shells could be made significantly thinner, and thus lighter, than traditional steel-reinforced concrete shells. The presented research quantifies this material gain by performing the entire design of a case study: a 10 m span TRC saddle shell.