Effect of test setup on the fiber-to-mortar pull-out response in TRM composites: Experimental and analytical modeling

Textile-reinforced mortars (TRM) have recently received significant attention for the externally bonded reinforcement (EBR) of masonry and reinforced concrete structures. The fiber-to-mortar bond, the TRM-to-substrate bond, and the mechanical properties of the TRM constituents have a fundamental role in the performance of this strengthening technique and therefore require special attention. Despite this importance, only few investigations are devoted to characterization of the single fiber-to-mortar bond response in these systems.This paper, as an step towards addressing the fiber-to-mortar bond, presents a combined experimental and analytical investigation on the effect of test setup 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 fiber-to-mortar bond behavior. The experimental and analytical results are critically discussed and presented and bond-slip laws are extracted for each test setup.- This work was partly financed by FEDER funds through the Competitivity Factors Operational Programme (COMPETE) and by national funds through the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) within the scope of project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007633. The support to the first author through grant SFRH/BD/131282/2017 is acknowledged. The second author acknowledges the financial support of the European Union's Marie Curie Individual Fellowship program under REA grant agreement No. 701531.