Bending Behavior and Deformability of Glass Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Reinforced Concrete Members

This paper presents bending behavior of rectangular concrete beams reinforced with sand-coated and ribbed glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars including failure mode delineation and deformability response. Discussion on the bending behavior of the GFRP reinforced concrete members includes the influence of strength, stiffness, and geometric properties of concrete and GFRP bars. In addition, the limit state of energy absorption is established, which is a ratio of energy absorption at ultimate failure of GFRP reinforced concrete beams under bending to that at a limiting serviceability curvature. The energy absorption concept including the limit state has been introduced herein; this satisfies the curvature limit state so that the deflection and crack-width limit states can be unified and deformability factors established to avoid catastrophic failures.