Experimental Study on Increase of Bonding Strength of FRP Reinforcement in Concrete

Abstract

In the last two decades, the use of fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) bars is of great interest to reinforce concrete beam structures due to its high specific strength, effective corrosion resistance, and low cost fabrication. Therefore, the flexural performance of these reinforced concrete beams containing FRP bars has been investigated by researchers for years with great interest. According to these investigations, one of the major problems is weak bonding strength between these bars and concrete material. Since, this major problem causes low flexural capacity, high deflection, and high crack widths for the reinforced concrete beams. Hence, the use of FRP bars by engineers does not sufficiently become widespread and also the engineering applications of these useful materials are still limited today. In this study, it is aimed to present an applicable solution regarding the bonding failures of the FRP bars in structurally reinforced concrete beams. For this solution, reinforced concrete beam samples were produced by using FRP materials on which knotted structures were formed. Then these samples were tested under 3-point bending tests. Furthermore, smooth-surfaced FRP bars and traditional deformed steel rebars were also used as reinforcing materials in the concrete beam samples for the comparison of the flexural capacities of each sample in order to investigate the effects of the reinforcing materials on the bonding strength. To conclude, the knotted FRP bars provide a significant contribution on the flexural capacity due to the increase of the bonding strength between the reinforcing material and the concrete in the beams.