Experimental and analytical study of flexural performance of concrete beams reinforced with hybrid of GFRP and steel rebars

Abstract

This paper studies the influence of varying the proportion and configuration of steel and glass fiber-reinforced-polymer (GFRP) rebars on the flexural behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) beams. The influence of adding steel fibers in concrete used for the hybrid reinforced beams is also studied. A total of sixteen under-reinforced concrete beams of 200 × 450 × 3000 mm were tested to failure under four-point flexure. The parameters investigated were first-crack load, initial stiffness, ultimate load, ductility, service load, and deflection at 50% and 100% of ultimate load. The increase in the area of steel rebars caused improvement in serviceability and enhancement in ductility. The incorporation of steel fibers in concrete improved the first crack-load and initial stiffness. The flexural capacity of hybrid reinforced beams was assessed based on the section analysis by incorporating strain hardening in steel rebars, which showed a reasonably good correlation with the experimental results.