Durability-Informed End-of-Life Screening of Textile-Reinforced Mortar: Residual Performance, Degradation Localization, and Candidate Circular Pathways

Circular recovery decisions for aged strengthening systems require evidence that distinguishes loss of installed function from exhaustion of constituent value. Conventional durability studies rarely translate residual mechanical states into end-of-life decision support. This study develops an uncertainty-aware, multi-scale assessment for textile-reinforced mortar (TRM) based on three observed residual states: matrix retention (Rm), local pull-out/interface-related retention (Ri), and TRM-to-substrate/system-bond retention (Rb). AR-glass- and basalt-reinforced lime-based TRM systems were evaluated under dry reference, distilled-water, saline, alkaline, and acidic conditions after 1000, 3000, and 5000 h of exposure. Residual states were normalized to time-matched dry references, while 10,000 specimen-level bootstrap resamples quantified uncertainty. Cross-scale contrasts were used to identify degradation localization, and scenario thresholds of 0.60, 0.70, and 0.80 supported five performance-based end-of-life pathways. Among 24 non-reference conditions, 13 showed statistically supported localized or distributed degradation, whereas 11 remained uncertainty-dominated. At Rcrit=0.70, 12 conditions were classified as continued-service candidates, two as repair/rebonding candidates, seven as recovery-assessment candidates, none as material recycling/downcycling candidates, and three as requiring further inspection. At 5000 h, basalt-reinforced systems exposed to distilled water, alkaline, and acidic environments consistently exhibited a recovery-assessment pattern in which system-level functionality deteriorated while the observed lower-scale states remained comparatively preserved. No condition met the specific C4 material recycling/downcycling screening criteria under the tested states, thresholds, and decision rules, which means that those criteria were not satisfied and not that the materials are non-recyclable. Sensitivity analyses confirmed that alternative matrix definitions, baseline selection, and rupture handling did not alter modal pathway assignments, whereas stricter uncertainty treatment redirected several cases to further inspection. These results show that system-level functional deterioration need not coincide with exhaustion of observed lower-scale material states. The approach is therefore presented as an uncertainty-aware, performance-based screening layer for candidate end-of-life pathways: the five categories are transparent, rule-based screening hypotheses that identify candidates for subsequent assessment and do not verify reuse, constituent recovery, recyclability, or environmental or economic benefit.