Experimental behaviour and deflection of low-strength concrete beams reinforced with FRP bars

The primary objective of this new study of fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP)-reinforced concrete (RC) beams is to evaluate the mechanical performance of RC beams made of low strength concrete internally reinforced with FRP. The use of FRP rebars with low compressive strength concrete is desirable in order to avoid the accelerated corrosion processes that could occur with steel rebars. For this purpose, an experimental programme was designed to identify the failure modes and bending behaviour. The experimental results are compared with equations from ACI 440.1R-06, CSA S806-12 and other design codes as well as with other results from a review of the literature.
The comparisons indicate that the resistance moment is well predicted by codes for flexural failure. At ultimate loads, the deflection of the beams is further underestimated compared with the deflection of Reinforced Concrete beams with a higher compressive strength. An analytical simulation of 690 beams indicates that deflection is the major limiting criterion at the serviceability limit state.
Finally, the formulation problem of the optimal FRP design for reinforced concrete beams can be turned into a programming problem. The space of the feasible design solutions and the optimal solutions can be obtained using only a reduced number of design variables and an existing design method.