Reliability-Based Calibration of Eurocode-Like Design Equations for Shear Strength of FRP-RC Beams

Abstract

AbstractConcrete beams reinforced by fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) bars are known as an attractive option for the construction of buildings and bridges, where corrosion of traditional steel reinforcement is a major concern. Among various structural aspects of FRP-reinforced concrete (FRP-RC) beams, shear performance has been a subject of research in recent years. This is based on the fact that the conventional sum of concrete plus stirrup contributions to shear strength, though generally adopted for steel-RC beams, may not be simply generalized to FRP-RC beams due to major differences between FRP and steel bars. Thereby, there is an attempt to provide shear design equations, which are specific to FRP-RC beams. In this paper, the Eurocode 2 approach for the shear design of steel-RC beams is modified through a reliability analysis in order to apply it to the case of FRP-RC beams. In doing so, the load factors used in Canadian standards are taken into account and first-order second-moment (FOSM) method is employed. The model errors are evaluated on the basis of a large set of experiments on shear-failed FRP-RC beams assembled from the literature. The calibration is aimed at modifying the resistance reduction factor in addition to altering the characteristic value to achieve the target reliability index.