Shear Strength Prediction of FRP-reinforced Concrete Beams: A State-ofthe- Art Review of Available Models

Abstract

The use of Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) bars to reinforce concrete structures has received a great deal of interest in recent days due to their high tensile strength, corrosion resistance and good non-magnetization properties. Whether to pick FRP bars due to their low modulus of elasticity over conventional steel, to be used in beams, is the major concern of a designer. FRP bars show low strength in shear as they are more elastic than steel. Recently, researchers have developed a number of models to predict the shear strength of FRP-reinforced concrete, but none of them have yet been capable of determining the results satisfactorily. Here a comparative study among different codes and models as suggested by the researchers has been conducted to predict the shear strength of FRP reinforced concrete beams. To facilitate the comparison a database of 104 beams have been presented, which are composed of shear span-to-depth ratio, a/d ranged from 2.5 to 6.5, shear span, (a) ranges from, 600 to 1219, concrete compressive strength, (fc') 24.1Mpa to 81.4MPa, Modulus of elasticity of FRP bars, (Ef) varies between 32GPa to 145GPa, longitudinal reinforcement ratio, (Pf) varies between 0.25 to 3.02. The database contains beams and slabs without transverse reinforcement. The guidelines, codes and models that have been implemented and compared in this study consist of ACI 440.1R-03, CSA S806-06, CSA S806-08, CSA S806-11, JSCE-1997, ISIS-M03-01 2001, BISE guideline 1999. It was observed from the statistical analysis that model proposed by Kara 2011 exhibited the overall best performance to predict the shear strength of FRP-reinforced beams.