# Experimental Investigation of TR-UHPC Composites and Flexural Behavior of TR-UHPC Composite Slab
## 4 Conclusions  
In this study, basalt fiber textile (BFT) was identified as the most economical and effective reinforcement material for UHPC via axial tension experiments on textile-reinforced UHPC (TR-UHPC). Through stacking and bending tests, the workability and superior flexural behavior of the BFT-UHPC thin slab were examined. Based on the experimental study, some principal conclusions can be drawn.  
1. In terms of the axial tensile performance, the fiber textiles ranked in the following order: CFT, BFT, and GFT. Furthermore, the corresponding increases in initial cracking strength and ultimate tensile strength were 18.0% and 21.9% for CFT, 12.0% and 16.0% for BFT, and only 9.1% and 8.0% for GFT, respectively.  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Load** & **39.9 kN** & **44.8 kN** & **54.7 kN** & **74.6 kN** & **84.2 kN** \\ \hline Specim crack width (mm) & 0.03 & 0.04 & 0.05 & 0.08 & 0.08 \\ \hline Crack width of concrete slab (mm) & 0.05 & 0.06 & 0.11 & 0.15 & 0.23 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 10: Crack width correlation.  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Eigenvalue** & \(\mathbf{P_{cr}}\)**(kN)** & \(\mathbf{P_{br0.2}}\)**(kN)** & \(\mathbf{P_{br0.2}}\)**(kN)** & \(\mathbf{P_{y}}\)**(kN)** & \(\mathbf{P_{u}}\)**(kN)** \\ \hline Load & 14.8 & 84.2 & 92.4 & 84.2 & 94.7 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} Note: In the table, \(P_{cr}\) is the cracking load of the test slab, \(P_{br0.2}\) is the load when the crack width of the slab bottom is 0.2 mm, \(P_{br0.2}\) is the load when the crack width of the slab top is 0.2 mm, \(P_{y}\) is the yield load of the test slab, and \(P_{u}\) is the ultimate bearing capacity of the slab.  
\end{table}
Table 9: Characteristic loads.  
2. When the textile reinforcement ratio was higher than the critical one, the specimen exhibited a clear strain hardening phenomenon after cracking. The T-B4 specimen showed a 12.0% increase in initial cracking strength and a 15.9% increase in tensile strength compared to the T-B2 specimen. The ultimate strain of T-B4 was 1.4 times that of T-B2 and 2.6 times that of the plain UHPC tensile specimen.
3. In the stacking test, the mid-span deflection of the BFT-UHPC slab was 0.775 mm under the crowd load (4 kN/m\({}^{2}\)), which was only 19.8% of the deflection limit, satisfying the walking comfort requirements of pedestrians. Therefore, the BFT-UHPC slab can remain uncracked during service.
4. The crack resistance and superior toughness of the BFT-UHPC composite have been well-verified. Fiber textiles play an important role in limiting the development of crack width, maintaining stiffness, and improving the ductility of the slab.  
Supverision, Y.Z.; Methodology, Y.Z.; Validation, Y.Q.; Formal analysis, Y.Q.; Investigation, J.F.; Data curation, J.F.; Writing--original draft, J.F.; Writing--review and editing, Y.Q. and Y.Z.; Supervision, Y.Z. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
This study was financially supported by the Construction Science and Technology Project of Chongqing (ckz2022-1-9).  
Not applicable.  
The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available as the authors' future research work is strongly based on these.  
We express our gratitude to Hunan Zhonglu Huacheng Bridge Technology Corporation (Xiangtan, China) for their help in preparing the specimens.  
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.