Forget iron reinforcement: VUB engineers create wafer-thin concrete using textile mesh

Researchers and engineers at the VUB research group Mechanics of Materials and Constructions (MeMC) are experimenting extensively with textile reinforced concrete. These are not ordinary textiles that clothes are made from, but technical textiles, made of carbon, glass or basalt fibres. Using this kind of material for reinforcement can reduce the amount of concrete in a structure by up to 80%, representing a serious economic and environmental gain.

"But that’s not even the biggest advantage," says postgraduate researcher and structural engineer Michael El Kadi of MeMC. "This is more about durability: textile-reinforced concrete doesn’t suffer from degradation because it no longer contains corroding materials. ...