Flexural Behaviour of Hybrid Bar Reinforced Concrete Beams (GFRP Bars with Steel Wires): An Experimental Study

Document Type : Original papers

Author

Luxor Higher Institute of Engineering & Technology, Luxor 85834, Egypt.

Abstract

Steel material is the most used material to be used with concrete due to its well-performance. Nevertheless, aggressive environmental conditions can lead to severe damage to steel bars due mostly to corrosion effects. Aside from that, steel production alerts the environment in many different ways. All these reasons promote engineers to define a new eco-friendly alternative for steel to be used in reinforced concrete structures. Thus, The use of fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) as an alternative to steel reinforcement has become a popular research topic. One of the major drawbacks of using FRP is its low modulus of elasticity which might lead to a significant reduction in stiffness consequently, exceedance to deformation limit states. In this context, the concept of material hybridization is applied to increase the elastic modulus of GFRP bars by using steel in the RC beams. The FRP hybrid bar is designed and manufactured by combining two different materials, including fibres and steel and unsaturated polyester resins.This research presents an experimental study to investigate the flexural behaviour of concrete beams reinforced internally with hybrid reinforcement under static loading. A set of twenty reinforced concrete beams were monotonically tested under four-point bending. The beams with 2400 mm length, 150 mm width and 250 mm height were tested under four-point loads. Eight reinforced concrete beams underwent four-point bending monotonically. Crack pattern, Mode of Failure, cracking, ultimate load, mid span-deflection, primary reinforcement strain, and ductility index were examined. The GFRP area-to-concrete cross-section area ratio and hybridization ratio were examined.

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