The use of brittle materials with low tensile strength, such as concrete or masonry, has been known for thousands of years. The idea of embedding fibers in brittle materials, so that cracking does not lead to failure, is also not new. Thousands of years ago straw was added to clay bricks in order to make them tougher. Later on, techniques were devised to strengthen concrete that were based on the use of metallic reinforcement. In recent decades, various methods have been developed to replace the conventional steel reinforcement in concrete structures through the use of short fibers (e.g. steel, glass, or polymeric), with a recent development along these lines being the ultraductile concrete. Another development is the use of fiber reinforced polymers (FRP), which are typically madeof long, continuous fibers (e.g. carbon, glass, aramid) in a polymeric matrix, which yield reinforcing elements such as bars, strips, and sheets, for the reinforcement, strengthening, or seismic retrofitting of new or existing concrete and masonry structures. Considerations to combine continuous fibers with inorganic binders in the construction of new structures began in the 1980s, and the first research efforts were made in Germany in the 1990s, leading to the product known as textile reinforced concrete (TRC). This material consists of textiles made of long woven, knitted, or even unwoven fiber rovings in at least two directions, embedded in an inorganic fine-grained binder (typically—but not necessarily—cementitious). In the early 2000s, the textile-based composites were used successfully in the field of strengthening and seismic retrofitting of concrete and masonry structures, in an attempt to solve problems associated with the use of polymeric resins in FRP products. Atthebeginning, thesenew“textile fiber composite” materials were given (in Europe) the name “textile reinforced concrete” (TRC) or “textile reinforced mortar” (TRM). Strictly speaking, the inorganic matrix is not classified as “concrete”, due to the very small size of aggregates. More recently (in the USA), the materials were given the name “fabric reinforced cementitious matrix systems” (FRCM). The introduction of textile fiber composites to the market have been accompanied with an extensive expansion of research on TRC or TRM or FRCMs. Many research units worldwide deal with topics relevant to new constructions, as well as to the retrofitting of existing ones. A wide variety of publications already demonstrate the worldwide interest in this innovative structural material, which is expected to grow rapidly.

Overthelast 100years, steel has traditionally been used as reinforcement for concrete. Along with a set of important positive properties of concrete structures, such as strength and stiffness, their weight is very high, and steel reinforcement limits the size and shape of concrete products. Moreover, reinforcing steel bars are subject to corrosion, which can cause destruction of the concrete by reducing the effective crosssectional area of the bars and consequently increasing the stresses in the structure. One of the alternatives to conventional steel reinforcement is the use of textile reinforcement, which results in increased durability and reliability of civil engineering construction. High-strength textile materials are widely used in various fields of construction, including the construction of unique buildings and structures, road construction, hydraulic engineering, and others. Textile reinforcement for composites includes various hierarchical structural levels: fiber, yarn, and fabric (Hearle et al., 1972). Traditionally, the reinforcement of composites with chopped, short fibers has been used for the manufacture of structural composites. The use of continuous reinforcement in the form of textile reinforcing structures has gained popularity in the last two or three decades. The main advantages of using them consist of sufficient flexibility of textile manufacturing processes and the possibility of using a wide range of raw materials. Reinforcement with textiles offers many opportunities, including manufacturing very thin composite and concrete parts, no risk of corrosion of reinforcement materials, and the ability to manufacture structural parts with complex shapes and predetermined properties.