Experimental investigation of flexural bond behavior of sand-coated GFRP rebar embedded in concrete

Abstract

Steel rebars used in Reinforced Concrete (RC) elements may be subjected to corrosion due to aggressive environmental conditions. Rebar corrosion reduces the durability and the structural capacity of RC elements. On the other hand, since the steel rebars affect the magnetic fields, it is not preferred to be used in RC structures which is used to carry the equipment that propagate magnetic waves such as toll plazas on highways. For these reasons, the use of Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) rebars is increasing, especially in RC infrastructure constructions. The objective of the present study is to investigate the bond behavior of Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) rebar with a sand-coated outer surface in concrete using the arched beam test method. The concrete strength and the embedment length were chosen as variable parameters and 34 beam test specimens were tested in the laboratory. A comparative analysis of the crack patterns, the diagonal crack angles and the failure modes of the specimens is made. In addition, the experimentally determined bond-slip relationships were compared with different analytical models in the literature. Consequently, a bond-slip model, which takes into account CMR (Cosenza-Manfredi-Realfonzo) for the increasing part and mBPE (modified Bertero-Popov-Eligehausen) for the decreasing part, is proposed to be used in the numerical models of RC beams with sand-coated GFRP rebars. A prediction model for the bond strength is proposed, along with a recommendation for an upper bound value for the bond stress, which indirectly offers a minimum embedment length for a bond without slippage.