Effect of macro-synthetic structural fibers on the flexural behavior of concrete beams reinforced with different ratios of GFRP bars

Chellapandian, M. and Mani, Atul and Suriya Prakash, S. (2020) Effect of macro-synthetic structural fibers on the flexural behavior of concrete beams reinforced with different ratios of GFRP bars. Composite Structures, 254. pp. 1-16. ISSN 0263-8223

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Abstract

Fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) bars are increasingly used as internal reinforcement in concrete structures for mitigating the corrosion problems associated with steel reinforcement. However, its wide spread use in construction is limited by the parameters such as lack of awareness/usage, brittle failure mode, high initial cost, availability of comprehensive guidelines and test data on its long term effectiveness. The use of macro-synthetic structural fibers is explored in this study for improving the post-cracking, and deformability characteristics of glass FRP (GFRP) reinforced concrete beams. In total, eighteen full-scale RC beams with and without structural synthetic fibers are tested under flexure. The test specimens include: (i) control beams with steel reinforcement, (ii) GFRP bar RC beams without macro-synthetic fibers, and (iii) GFRP RC beams with 0.35%, 0.7%, and 1.0% volume of macro-synthetic fibers. The effect of fiber addition on cracking, stiffness and deformability characteristics of GFRP RC beams with different longitudinal reinforcement ratios (0.7% and 2.0%) is investigated. Experimental results reveal that the addition of fibers significantly improved the post-cracking response. Moreover, the crack widths reduced significantly at service loads with the increase in fiber dosage. Addition of 1% fibers helps in enhancing the deformability of GFRP RC beams and converts the failure from brittle flexure-shear to ductile flexure mode with higher pseudo-ductility. Analytical calculations of deflections showed a close correlation with the test results. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd

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