Flexural Performance of Concrete Structures Reinforced with Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP)

Abstract

One of the most recent uses of FRP is to replace the use of steel in reinforced concrete structures. There are multiple reasons for deciding to choose FRP instead of steel such as their lightweight which can be quite beneficial to the design of buildings, high strength, and high flexibility. However, the initial use of this material was anticipated in the retrofitting of heritage buildings or any other damaged structures. There are several studies that concentrated on the use of FRP to enhance shear and flexural strength of concrete structures. However, limited studies concentrated on the effect of FRP on flexural behavior of concrete beams. Therefore, the aim of this research is to investigate the flexural performance of concrete beams that are reinforced using fiber reinforced polymers. The experimental program that was conducted in this study was divided into 4 different beams, 2 of them were reinforced using ordinary steel, while the other 2 were reinforced using carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP). The highest potential deflection occurred in steel beam was 4.2 mm after applying a maximum of 42 MPa. The second beam was reinforced with FRP and accomplished 38.06 MPa, and the resulted deflection was around 12mm. The third beam was reinforced with steel and highest flexural strength measured was 75.56 MPa, while the deflection resulted from this load is 5.52 mm. Finally, the last beam was reinforced using FRP rebar and resulted deflection was 11.11 from 60.84 MPa. This study has showed the potential of using FRP in concrete structures especially in terms of flexural performance. Further studies are needed to investigate the influence of water and chemical substances on the performance of concrete beams reinforced with FRP.