Review on NSM CFRP Strengthened RC Concrete Beams in Shear

The use of NSM FRP strengthening of concrete structures has become an attractive option to retrofit the existing structures against shear and flexure. This paper reviews only the utilization of NSM for shear in previous review articles. A database of tests of NSM strengthened beams in shear is presented to evaluate the existing design formulations of calculating the NSM contribution in shear. These formulations were in agreement with the experimental results in the database. Further research topics are also identified such as the shape of NSM FRP bars, combined effects of existing steel stirrups, and NSM FRP reinforcement and analytical formulations.

Ductility of Concrete Beams Reinforced with FRP Rebars

Concrete beams reinforced with FRP rebars have greater durability than standard steel reinforced elements. The main disadvantage of using FRP rebars is the low ductility of elements which may be unacceptable in certain situations. There are several different ways of increasing the ductility of concrete elements, which are analyzed in this paper. They are compared based on efficiency, influence on durability and ease of construction. Less analyzed and tested methods are given more attention to try and expand the current knowledge and possibilities. For methods that lack experimental data, theoretical analysis is undertaken to assess the possible influence of that method on the increase in ductility. Ductility was obtained by calculating bending moment–curvature diagrams of cross sections for different reinforcement layouts. One method that lacks experimental data is confining the compressive area of beams with tensile FRP reinforcement. Theoretical analysis showed that confining the compressive area of concrete can significantly increase the ductility and bending capacity of beams. Since experimental data of beams reinforced with FRP rebars in tension and confined compressive area is sparse, some suggestions on the possible test setups are given to validate this theoretical analysis. Concrete beams reinforced with FRP can be detailed in such a way that they have sufficient ductility, but additional experimental research is needed.

A REVIEW OF SHEAR BEHAVIOR OF CONCRETE BEAMS REINFORCED BY FRP BARS

Using fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) in the concrete structures was rapidly increased throughout the past two decades. Corrosion-free properties and the high ratio of strength-to-weight of the FRP reinforcement has led to the significant increase of structures’ service life. In the present work, the earlier studies that are associated with shear behaviour of the beams that have been reinforced by the FRP bars are reviewed. Many researchers have investigated shear behavior of the beams of concrete that have been reinforced by the FRP bars and determined their capacity. Some of them have per-formed experimental investigations through the testing of several beams with varying some of the parameters, whereas the others have been theoretical for estimating shear capacity of the beam. This study presents as well, a review for all of the codes and researcher equations for shear design of the beams that have been rein-forced by the FRP bars.

Load-Deflection Behavior of Over- and Under-Reinforced Concrete Beams with Hybrid FRP-Steel Reinforcements

The present study pertains to the load-deflection behavior and cracking moments of concrete beams with hybrid FRP-steel reinforcement. Under and over-reinforced hybrid beams were tested for failure along with reference beams with only steel or FRP reinforcement. The first-cracking moments of the beams were estimated analytically by using different uncracked moments of the inertia and modulus of rupture definitions. The uncracked moment of inertia definitions include the gross and uncracked transformed moments. The adopted modulus definitions are comprised of the experimental values from tests on prisms and the analytical values from the equations in different concrete codes. Furthermore, analytical methods were developed for estimating the deflections of concrete beams with hybrid FRP-steel or only FRP reinforcement. Two different types of elastic moduli, namely the secant modulus corresponding to the extreme compression fiber strain and the ACI 318M-19 modulus, were used in deflection calculations. Closer estimates were obtained by using the secant modulus, particularly in hybrid-reinforced beams. In the post-yielding region of the steel tension reinforcement, the deflection estimates were established to lay in closer proximity to the experimental curve when obtained by adding up the deflection increments instead of directly calculating the total deflections from the elastic curve equation. Accurate estimation of the cracking moment was found to be vital for the close prediction of deflections.