CORNET Indu-Form TRC Project
Project Acronym: INDUForm-TRC
Project Title: Industrial Production of Form-flexible Textile Reinforced Concrete Components
Project Number : 222N097 TÜBİTAK Project Start Date: May 1, 2023
Project Teams: BOUN Materials Group: Prof. Dr. Nilüfer Özyurt Zihnioğlu (Project Coordinator), Thomas Henzel, Bedirhan Enes Kelek, Ekin Aydın, Simay Erguvan BOUN Structural Engineering: Prof. Dr. Serdar Soyöz BOUN Industrial Engineering: Prof. Dr. Necati Aras, Gökçen Karakol, RWTH Aachen Institute of Textile Technology: Prof. Dr. Thomas Gries, Bhat Shantanu, Kira Heins
Advances in material technologies allow designers to expand their creativity with elegant and appealing designs such as free-form shell structures. It is labor intensive and time-consuming to build such unconventional shapes with conventional steel reinforced concrete(SRC). Due to the metallic characteristic of the steel, it requires concrete cover to protect the steel from corrosion which considerably increases the width of the section. Additionally, it is difficult to place and shape the steel reinforcement in accordance with the free-form surfaces. To eliminate shortcomings of steel reinforcement, more flexible and corrosion-resistant reinforcements can be used such as the textile-reinforced cement-based composites(TRC). Despite its advantages in the design of sustainable and resilient free-form structures, TRC technology possesses critical drawbacks that hinder its widespread implementation. These are its labor-intensive manufacturing, high cost, and other challenges/uncertainties related to the non-standard manufacturing and design processes it entails. Thus, the integration of TRC into the process chains of the precast plants involves high potential risks. The scope of this project is to establish the scientific and industrial foundations that will enable the efficient/systematic integration of this innovative system into the production chains of precast plants for future widespread application of TRC.
The figure above demonstrates a roof structure which is chosen as the prototype work of the project for verification/adjustments/fine tuning of the developed design and manufacturing approaches, and of the production line.
Project Consortium
Research Performers: Boğaziçi University Construction Materials and Structure Group in Civil Engineering Department, Supply Chain Optimization Group in Industrial Engineering Department of Boğaziçi University, Institut für Textiltechnik der RWTH Aachen University
Associations: IMSAD (Association of Turkish Construction Material Producers) – FKT (Forschungskuratorium Textil e.V.)
Industrial Users Committee
Türkiye: Fibrobeton, ATTEC DESIGN, HKTM, Plustechno
Germany: Johne&Groß GmbH, CBG Composites GmbH, Hitexbau GmbH, ARCHITEKT PIDUN GmbH, Durapact 2.0 Kompetenzzentrum Faserbeton GmbH
May 8, 2024 3rd User Committee Meeting
The 1st year of the CORNET - InduForm TRC - Industrial Production of Flexible Formable Concrete Elements with Textile Reinforcement project, carried out in partnership with Boğaziçi University and RWTH Aachen University/Technical Textile Institute, has been completed. The 3rd user committee meeting of the project was held on 8 May 2024, hosted by Boğaziçi University, with the participation of İMSAD (İnşaat Malzemeleri Sanayicileri Derneği), Fibrobeton (Yapı Elemanları San. and Tic. A.Ş.) , Attec Design, Hidropar (Hareket Kontrol Teknolojileri Merkezi San. and Tic. A.Ş.) ve Plustechno (Danışmanlık ve Yapı Kimyasalları San. ve Tic. A.Ş.) with the participation of their representatives.
The first year of the project involved classifying the structural forms in which textile-reinforced cement-based composites can be effectively used, conducting studies to develop textile reinforcements suitable for the selected concrete element designs, and developing sustainable design approaches that can be applied to textile reinforcements. Subsequently, with the support of Fibrobeton Yapı Elemanları A.Ş., the necessary steps were taken to produce the project prototype structure and samples for material testing were produced and tested at Boğaziçi University, Construction Materials Laboratory. In addition, the structural modelling of the prototype structure to be produced with free-form textile reinforced concrete elements has been completed. In the next stages of the project, in parallel with the construction and testing of the prototype structure, studies will be carried out to analyse the production chains of the precast sector and to develop approaches for integrating the production of TRC building elements into the production chains of existing factories.
Construction of the Prototype in the Project
A significant milestone has been achieved in INDUForm-TRC project with the successful construction of the highly curved prototype structure whose pictures can be seen below. The focus was on shaping the textile reinforcements coated with Acrylate thermoplastic polymer in this study. The reshaping capability of the thermoplastic polymers after curing was utilized and the aim was to understand the feasibility of this technology on large-scale structures. In the construction process of the prototype structure, firstly shaping of the textile reinforcements was carried out by heating them up to the glass transition temperature of the thermoplastic polymer and pressing on the formwork, as demonstrated below. The shaping properties, in other words drapability, of the thermoplastic-coated textile reinforcement were analyzed on large-scale formwork and the findings of this study highlight the viability of this approach to shape the textile reinforcement on curved surfaces. Once the shaping of all textiles was completed, the concreting was applied by spraying technique to construct the prototype.
We greatly acknowledge the invaluable support of Fibrobeton (Yapı Elemanları San. ve Tic. A.Ş.) through the construction process of the prototype structure of INDUForm TRC Project.
Outcomes of the Project
Conference Papers
- Kelek, Bedirhan Enes; Henzel, Thomas; Bhat, Shantanu; Kohen, Beni; Maraşlı, Muhammed; Kocaman, Esat Selim; Gries, Thomas; Özyurt, Nilüfer, "Investigation and Experimentation of Thermoplastic-Coated Textile Reinforcement Shaping on Curved Surfaces" (2025), Proceedings of the RILEM Spring Convention and Conference 2025, Mendrisio, Switzerland. (You can access the paper at https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-032-14166-8_5)
- Bhat, Shantanu; Bäuerle, Umid; Kelek, Bedirhan Enes; Özyurt, Nilüfer; Gries, Thomas, "Comparative Study on Bending Stiffness and Drapability of Coated Carbon Textile Reinforcements for Architectural Textile Reinforced Concrete Elements" (2026), European Conference on Composite Materials, ECCM22, Oslo, Norway. (submitted)
PhD Thesis: Shantanu Bhat, "Interdisciplinary Methodology for Design and Technology Chain Planning of Textile Reinforced Concrete Panels" (2025), RWTH Aachen University. (You can find the thesis at by https://publications.rwth-aachen.de/record/1018715/files/1018715.pdf)
Master Thesis: Bedirhan Enes Kelek, "Design and Industrial Application of Form-Flexible Textile Reinforced Concrete Shell Structures" (2025), Boğaziçi University. (You can find the thesis at https://tez.yok.gov.tr/UlusalTezMerkezi/TezGoster?key=Xau5rw3KuCgEuy-FuJ...)
As soon as the final reports are approved by the institutes, they will be shared here...
