International Concrete Abstracts Portal

Corrosion of reinforcement steel is a major issue for many structural concrete components, because it leads to strength reduction and may significantly reduce the service life. For this reason, fiber-reinforced polymer rebars (FRP rebars) have been developed, as they represent a viable alternative that may replace reinforcing steel for structures that are particularly susceptible to corrosion issues. However, structural design philosophies for these new materials are still in development and further research is needed to implement FRP rebars properly and safely in design codes but also to ensure that design calculations properly predict the actual behavior and performance of FRP reinforced structures.

This study was conducted to evaluate the strength and structural deformation behavior of flexural beams that were designed according to Eurocode 2 and, for comparison, according to different design methods pro-posed for FRP reinforced structures. With regard to the development of a uniform design concept for alternative reinforcement materials existing in Germany/Europe, different bending design concepts includ-ing the serviceability limit state were evaluated. In addition, the theoretically calculated and predicted strength/deformation were compared to the experimentally obtained measurements. A total of 15 flexu-ral beams, with ans overall length of 4.5 m (177 in.), a width of 200 mm (7.8 in.), and a height of 400 mm (15.8 in.), were cast; three of these beams (designed according to Eurocode 2) featured traditional steel rein-forcement, to serve as control group. The remaining 12 flexural beams were evenly allocated to capture the two alternative reinforcement materials, while generating three different reinforcement distribution patterns with comparable reinforcement ratios (equivalent cross-sectional areas). Thus, a total of six subgroups –three with GFRP and three with BFRP – each with two specimens, were analized. To test all beam in pure bending and to eliminate the influence from shear forces, two equally increasing loads were applied at the (longitudinal) third-points of the beams. Both deflections and loads were measured at several points to evaluate the structural performance of the FRP reinforced structural members.

The results showed that the deflection of the glass fiber reinforced bars at the design load capacity measured twice as much as the deflection of the control group. Almost three times as much deflection (at the same load) was observed for the concrete beams reinforced with basalt fiber rebars. In addition, it was observed that the concrete beams with glass and basalt fiber reinforcement bars showed a nearly elastic-elastic behavior up to the point of failure, whereas the steel-reinforced concrete beams showed an elastic-plastic behavior. However, the deformational behavior differed between the various beam types. While the prevailing equations properly captured the post-cracking performance of traditionally reinforced concrete beams, they do not adequately predict the deflections of FRP reinforced concrete beams. From the measurements and analyses, it was concluded that the serviceability limit state (SST) is more critical than the ultimate limit state (LTS) for the design of concrete flexural beams reinforced with FRP rebars.

Fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) materials provide an excellent alternative for shear, flexure, and confinement retrofitting of deteriorated infrastructure. Despite the advanced technology employed in fabricating FRP materials, the monitoring and quality control of the FRP installation still present a challenge. For externally bonded FRP-rehabilitated structures, the existence of undesirable defects, including surface voids and debonding, on the concrete surface should be evaluated, as these defects would adversely affect the durability and capacity of the FRP-rehabilitated structures. Nondestructive testing has the potential to provide a fast and precise means to assess these FRP rehabilitated structures. This paper presents an experimental and theoretical investigation of the use of ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and infrared tomography (IRT) methods to evaluate reinforced-concrete (RC) slabs externally bonded with glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP). Four externally bonded GFRP RC slab specimens were fabricated. Surface voids, interfacial debonding, and vertical cracks were artificially created on the concrete surface of the RC slabs. Test variables include the location and size of surface voids, interfacial debonding, and diameter of steel reinforcement. Improved two-dimensional and three-dimensional image reconstruction method, using the synthetic aperture focusing technique (SAFT), was established to effectively interpret the GPR test data. The results showed that an in-house developed software, that employed the enhanced image reconstruction technique, provided sharp and high-resolution images of the GFRP-retrofitted RC slabs in comparison to those images obtained from the device’s original software. The data suggests that the GPR testing could effectively be employed to accurately determine the size and location of the artificial voids as well as the spacing of the steel reinforcement. The GPR, however, could not well predict the debonding and concrete cracking, as the GPR signals were corrupted because of the direct wave and coupling effect of the antennae and background noise. Results obtained from the IRT testing showed that this technique can detect and locate near-surface defects including surface voids, interfacial debonding, and cracking with acceptable accuracy. The study suggests the combined use of the GPR and IRT imaging to accurately detect possible internal defects of FRP-rehabilitated concrete structures.

Self-compacting mortars and concretes for horizontal structures are cementitious mixtures that are both fluid and homogeneous, with the particularity of flowing under the effect of their own weight. Thanks to their homogeneous texture they offer the possibility of achieving good quality of finishing and many such advantages become the reason for their applications especially in slabs and floors. However, self-compacting mortars or concretes show considerable shrinkage and cracking problems when used in floors and slabs (Weiss et al., 1998). Because of their large moisture exchange surfaces, the floor screeds are subjected to significant drying effects and in particular plastic shrinkage. If the movements are restrained, the risk of cracking is high. In this respect the use of fibers is a good alternative to using reinforcement bars and welded wire mesh. Indeed on site a clear decrease in cracking caused mainly by the shrinkage can be observed as soon as the fibers are incorporated in the screed. This study is conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness and the effects of glass fibers on the control of cracking phenomena due to shrinkage by determining their mechanisms of action at young age. The study is carried out in two parts: Firstly, free shrinkage behavior is analyzed in the fiber reinforced floor screed. Secondly, the restrained behavior at young ages using recently developed uni-axial tensile testing machine is investigated.

A significant body of research is available on the strength of steel fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC) members subjected to shear and flexure. The behaviour of SFRC under service loads has received less research attention. As the fibres are capable of transmitting tensile stress across a crack, the average tensile strain at a crack in a reinforced concrete member containing fibres is less than that in a similar member without fibres. As a result, the cracking and deformation characteristics of reinforced concrete structures can be significantly improved by adding fibres to the concrete mix. This paper first describes a physically rationale model of the tension stiffening behaviour of SFRC. With this behaviour quantified, expressions suitable for the design of SFRC members are derived for the control of instantaneous deflections and crack widths. Finally, a short example is provided.

Knowing that reinforced concrete will crack, how do I attain reasonable assurance that the walls of my environmental structure will be essentially liquid-tight?