MULTITEXCO · High Performance Smart Multifunctional Technical Textiles for the Construction Sector

In the last decade, advanced textiles materials have been developed as a result of a number of research and innovation projects addressing in particular the construction sector, which represent one of the biggest markets for textile products. Examples of advanced textiles for the construction sector comprise fabrics used for the rehabilitation of buildings, providing both strengthening and monitoring functions, geotextiles for the stabilisation and monitoring of soil structures such as railway, roadway embankments or coastal protection structures, high performance technical textiles for tensile structures used for covering large areas such as stadiums or exhibition areas, and textiles used in advanced roofing systems.However, despite of the above benefits, many building practitioners are unfamiliar with the behaviour and the characteristics of these materials. The lack of information about the use and the properties of these materials from the design and construction community limits their capability of achieving the highest possible standards in quality assurance and control construction projects.For these high performance materials the current design code or regulation may or may not be applicable: in general new codes or specifications or guidelines for their use or testing procedures are required to be developed for the purpose of design, construction and testing purpose.The overall objective of the MULTITEXCO project is to scientifically and technologically characterise the latest achievements in technical textile sector for the development of Guideline and Pre-normative research enabling future standards at EU level aiming at supporting the SMEs involved in the construction sector to fully exploit the new generation of multifunctional technical textiles.