Experimental and Numerical Investigations of BFRP-Reinforced Normal and High Strength Concrete Beams

Reinforced concrete structures are susceptible to steel corrosion in harsh environment and require frequent and expensive repair and maintenance to enhance the service life of these structures. FRP rebars offer a good alternative to steel rebars, provide similar strength and better durability against corrosion at a reasonable cost. Basalt fiber is a high-performance non-metallic fiber made from basalt rock melted at high temperature. BFRP rebars have been used in several structures recently. BFRP reinforced normal and high strength concrete beams have been investigated in this research. The BFRP reinforced concrete beams are designed to fail by concrete crushing rather than a brittle rebar failure (ACI-440). However, such design approach doesn’t fully utilize the tension capacity of FRP rebars. Therefore, increasing the concrete strength will harness more of the tension capacity of the FRP rebars. In this study, two high-strength concrete (HSC) beams and four normal concrete beams (with a replication) and different reinforcement ratios were cast and tested under four-point loading. The beam with the higher reinforcement ratio showed higher ductility while the beam with higher concrete strength showed higher overall capacity. FE simulation of the beams was carried out using ABAQUS software. Results of the simulations were in good agreement with the experimental results.