DAMAGE BEHAVIOR OF CONCRETE BEAMS REINFORCED WITH

GFRP BARS

By Wen-rui Yang, Xiong-jun He, Li Dai

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 CONTENTS

1 INTRODUCTION 3

2 EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES 4

3 FE MODELING PARTICULARS 6

4 RESULTS, DISCUSSION & CONCLUSIONS 8

5 REFERENCES 11

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1. INTRODUCTION
Deterioration of concrete facilities has become one of the most serious and difficult challenges facing the
construction industry. Decades of research and practical application have enabled fibre-reinforced
polymers (FRPs) to become a remarkably effective replacement for steel while preventing corrosion
problems by virtue of their various advantages compared with traditional materials, including high
strength, low self-weight, ease of handling, low maintenance requirements and high durability even in
rather harsh environments. In particular, glass-fibre-reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars are being used in a
growing number of applications because of their superior performance at a relatively competitive cost.

Extensive research has been conducted on the application of GFRP bars embedded in concrete structures.
A significant number of existing studies have addressed the mechanical properties of GFRP-reinforced
concrete beams, such as their flexural behavior, bond characteristics, fracture performance and durability.
Most of these studies have been experimentally based and have focused only on the damage in the final
failure stage. The lack of research on the damage evolution process of GFRP reinforced concrete structures
at all stages of loading can be attributed to the inherent limitations of experimental conditions. An
advanced finite element (FE) model is therefore suitable as a practical and economical tool to bridge this
gap, especially for analyses of mechanical properties, including the damage evolution throughout the
entire loading process, and for accurate modelling in design-oriented parametric studies. An advanced FE
model has been used by Zidani to simulate the flexural behavior of previously damaged concrete beams
repaired with FRP plates and to simulate all stages of the damage history.

Therefore, this paper not only reports the use of three-point flexural tests to evaluate the damage to
GFRP-reinforced concrete beams in the final failure stage but also presents results regarding the damage
evolution throughout the entire loading process obtained by characterizing the beams using the FE
method. In addition, the paper describes the extension of the validated FE model for the experimental
configuration to models for other beam configurations to study the effects of different bar types and
different GFRP reinforcement ratios for tensile reinforcement, compression reinforcement and stirrup-
type shear reinforcement on the energy dissipation characteristics of the beams. The results obtained
using these models reveal the role of GFRP bars in determining the damage behavior of concrete beams
and provide a theoretical basis for the design of GFRP reinforcement in concrete structures.

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2. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES
The GFRP bars used in this investigation were provided by Fenghui Composite Material Co., Ltd., Nanjing,
China. This type of bar (nominal diameter = 10 mm) has a helical indent formed by wrapping a resin-
impregnated E-glass tow along the length of the bar with a pitch L of 14 mm and a depth h of 0.325 mm.
The authors measured the equivalent diameter of the bar d using the immersion method and obtained a
value of 10.2 mm (immersed cross-sectional area = 82 mm2). The spiral steel bar with a diameter of 10
mm was selected as the contrast specimen, and the factory yield strength and the elastic modulus of the
steel reinforcement bars were taken to be 440 MPa and 210 GPa, respectively. The concrete beams were
cast in accordance with typical concrete mix design procedures with a cure time of 28 days to obtain a
target strength of 30 MPa. The concrete was provided by a local ready-mix plant, and the concrete mix
had the following proportions: water = 0.6: cement = 1: sand = 2.7: gravel = 3.7: fly ash = 0.2: admixture =
0.012. The cementitious material consisted of 75% Type I Portland cement, with a pH of 12.65, and 25%
Class F fly ash, where the percentages are expressed by weight.

Esfahani et al. studied the effect of transverse reinforcement on the bond strength between GFRP bars
and concrete by comparing their experimental results and the results reported in the literature with the
current design equation provided by the American Concrete Institute (ACI) Committee 440 guidelines.
Their findings indicated that the equation of ACI Committee 440 is not conservative and overestimates
the bond strength for small values of transverse reinforcement and for splices without transverse
reinforcement. Therefore, to eliminate other factors related to the damage behavior of concrete beams
reinforced with GFRP bars, all beams tested in this study were provided only with tensile reinforcement
and no shear reinforcement (stirrups) or compression reinforcement. Each test beam was given the same
tensile reinforcement, consisting of one 10 mm diameter bar embedded in the beam. The test beams had
cross-sectional dimensions of 80 x 110 mm and a length of 1100 mm.

Eccentric three-point tests were conducted to evaluate the flexural properties of the beams containing
embedded GFRP bars, which were simply supported over two rigid supports. One-point loads were
applied to all test beams and were monotonically increased until failure. Based on the optimal bond

length for a GFRP-reinforced concrete beam, the load was applied vertically at 250 mm from the support
point. The deflections were measured at the midspan, below the loading point and on both sides of the
radial position using ±200 mm linear variable differential transducers (LVDTs). The measured data were
recorded by a data logger connected to a computer system. In addition, crack development data were

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recorded using a DJCK-2 crack width measurement instrument. The same three-point tests for the steel-
reinforced concrete beams were conducted to compare and analyze the results.

Generally, it has been observed from experimental results that the initiation and propagation of any cracks
in a beam depend on the mechanical properties of the materials used, i.e., the tensile strength of the
concrete mix and the type of reinforcement applied. The mode of failure observed for the test beams
including GFRP reinforced concrete beams and steel-reinforced concrete beams was largely consistent
with typical shear compression failure. In this study, the ultimate load Pu was defined as the maximum
load measured by the load cell used in the data acquisition system for each beam, and the cracking load
Pcr was defined as the load measured when initial cracking was observed. For the four test beams of GFRP-
reinforced concrete beams, the ultimate loads were 13, 12, 13 and 12 kN, and the corresponding
maximum crack widths were 2.33, 1.92, 2.19 and 2.08 mm, respectively. However, the lower cracking
loads and larger maximum crack widths observed in the GFRP-reinforced concrete beams compared with
those observed in steel-reinforced concrete beams can be attributed to the lower elastic moduli of the
GFRP bars. For the four test beams of steel-reinforced concrete beams, the ultimate loads were 12.5, 12,
12 and 11.5 kN, and the corresponding maximum crack widths were 1.60, 1.41, 1.56 and 1.47 mm,
respectively. The average cracking loads of the steel-reinforced concrete beam is 1.61 times as much as
that of the GFRP-reinforced concrete beam. Therefore, the energy dissipation processes in GFRP-
reinforced concrete beams will be different from those of steel-reinforced concrete beams when
subjected to a given load or environment.

The fractal dimension can be used to characterize the damage degree of concrete beams with GFRP bars
under varying load levels; however, the finite element analysis can not only represent the damage degree
of GFRP reinforced concrete beams, but also describe the distribution of damage.

In the experiments, the crack propagation behavior, cracking load and ultimate load were investigated to
characterize the damage to GFRP-reinforced concrete beams subjected to loads at the failure stage.
However, the entire damage evolution process for GFRP-reinforced concrete beams, including the
propagation of microcracks and the energy dissipation behavior, could not be described at all stages of
loading. An advanced FE method was therefore employed to investigate the damage evolution throughout
the entire loading process to compensate for the deficiencies of the experimental investigation.

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3. FE MODELING PARTICULARS
A nonlinear FE model was developed using the commercial software ABAQUS 6.14 to verify the
contribution of the GFRP bars to the damage evolution process of the concrete beams. The developed FE
model was capable of simulating the actual shear and flexural behaviors, the failure mode and the damage
evolution process of the GFRP-reinforced concrete beams.

The material properties were determined based on the experimental results reported above and
appropriate constitutive models of the beam components. The ultimate tensile strength (fu) and modulus
of elasticity (Eb) of the GFRP bars were determined through laboratory testing and taken to be 1090 MPa
and 51.6 GPa, respectively. The GFRP bars show no obvious yield plateau, and their nominal yield strength
is defined as 0.75 times their ultimate strength. The GFRP reinforcement was modelled to exhibit elastic-
brittle behavior (a linear stress-strain curve up to brittle failure) under tension and zero strength and
stiffness under compression. There are three major causes of concrete nonlinearity: the cracking of the
concrete in the tensile zones, the nonlinearity of the concrete under compression, and the plasticity of
the steel reinforcement.

The model chosen for the four-node quadrilateral bilinear plane requires a reduced integral unit (CPS4R),
and the arc length method was used to iteratively obtain the descending curve. The loading force was
applied under displacement control, and the nonlinear problem was solved using a dynamic solution
approach to overcome the difficulties with convergence that are commonly encountered when modelling
cracking and debonding processes. The concrete was simulated as solid and homogeneous, and the
reinforcement bars (GFRP and steel) were simulated as truss elements. Chen et al. showed that material
damage considerably affects the performance of an FRP–concrete interface between two adjacent cracks.
The larger influence of material damage on an FRP–concrete interface compared with that on a steel bar–
concrete interface could be due to the existence of a relatively short effective bond length for the former.

Extensive research has been conducted on the numerical modelling of concrete cracking. Concrete
cracking or damage can be modelled in ABAQUS using the smeared crack concrete model, the brittle crack
concrete model, or the concrete damaged plasticity (CDP) model. In the developed FE model, the inelastic
behavior of the concrete was represented by the CDP model using the concept of isotropic damaged
elasticity combined with isotropic tensile and compressive plasticity. The CDP model can be used to
determine the strain hardening under compression, which can be defined based on the strain rate. These

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strains hardening results can then be used in conjunction with adaptive meshing to periodically remesh
highly deformed concrete zones during the analysis to avoid element distortions.

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4. RESULTS, DISCUSSION & CONCLUSIONS
It can be concluded that the advanced FE model is valid and capable of capturing the damage response of
concrete beams reinforced with GFRP bars or steel bars. Therefore, it could be used as a tool to predict
the influence of several parameters that were not experimentally tested.

Dissipative structure theory describes the evolution of an open system, which is far from equilibrium, from
disorder to order. Based on the results of the FE analysis, the damage dissipation energy, plastic
dissipation energy and strain energy were obtained to study the damage evolution of a GFRP-reinforced
concrete beam throughout the entire loading process.

The results of comparative experiments regarding the flexural properties of GFRP-reinforced concrete
beams and steel reinforced concrete beams have demonstrated that the structural performance of GFRP-
reinforced concrete beams is, to some extent, similar to that of conventional steel-reinforced concrete
beams. However, because of the low elastic modulus of GFRP bars, it was found that the deflection of a
GFRP-reinforced girder will suddenly increase because of the small size of the beam as a whole, and the
deflections of GFRP-reinforced concrete beams were found to be 2–4 times greater than those of a steel-
reinforced concrete beam with the same cross-sectional dimensions and ultimate bending capacity.
Masmoudi et al. confirmed these results in deflection experiments conducted on GFRP-reinforced
concrete structures.

From the energy dissipation analysis, it can be concluded that GFRP and steel reinforcement bars play an
important role in the overall structural performance of concrete and that the failure performance of GFRP-
reinforced concrete is approximately the same as that of steel-reinforced concrete. GFRP-reinforced
concrete beams have stronger anti-corrosive properties and higher tensile strength than do steel-
reinforce concrete beams; however, the crack width and mid-span deflection significantly decrease with
an increasing reinforcement ratio. Therefore, elucidating the advantages of using GFRP bars is very
important for promoting their application.

It is proposed that using GFRP bars for compression reinforcement should be controlled as much as
possible to prevent greater damage when the compression bars are under great stress but to fully use the
steel bar with its high elastic modulus.

Based on tests of five full-scale exterior T-shaped beam-column joint prototypes under simulated seismic
load conditions, Mady clearly confirmed the feasibility of using GFRP bars and stirrups as reinforcements

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and proposed that the ability of a joint to dissipate seismic energy can be enhanced by increasing the
beam reinforcement ratio while respecting the strong column–weak beam principle.

The damage evolution process for concrete structures can be used to directly predict their entire
performance histories. Therefore, it is necessary to research the damage behavior of GFRP reinforced
concrete beams.

In this paper, a unique set of experimental data on the cracking loads, ultimate loads, crack propagation
behaviors, fractal analysis and load–deflection curves of GFRP-reinforced concrete beams and steel-
reinforced concrete beams was reported to characterize the damage to such beams observed at the
failure stage. To compensate for the deficiencies of experimental studies, which cannot directly elucidate
the damage evolution process of GFRP-reinforced concrete beams throughout all stages of loading, an
advanced FE model was also developed, and its accuracy was demonstrated by comparing its predictions
with the experimental results. The damage distributions, energy dissipation behaviors and strain
distributions of GFRP-reinforced concrete beams are appropriately represented in this FE model. A
parametric study was conducted to investigate the effects of different bar types and different GFRP
reinforcement ratios for tensile reinforcement, compression reinforcement and stirrup-type shear
reinforcement on the energy dissipation of concrete beams. The following conclusions may be drawn from
the results presented in this paper:

• In the three-point tests of GFRP-reinforced concrete beams, the cracking loads of the test beams
were relatively small and the maximum crack widths, fractal dimension and deflections
corresponding to the ultimate loads were relatively large compared with the typical results for
steel-reinforced concrete beams.
• The damage distribution determined by analyzing the FE model allows for the locations and
extents of the damage suffered at all stages of loading to be well characterized. The trends of
change in the damage dissipation energy can be considered identical for both GFRP-reinforced
concrete beams and conventional steel reinforced concrete beams. However, GFRP and steel
reinforcement bars exert clearly different influences on the plastic dissipation energy and strain
energy of concrete beams, as demonstrated by the FE Model.
• Based on the presented analysis of the effects of different GFRP reinforcement ratios for tensile
reinforcement, compression reinforcement and stirrup-type shear reinforcement on the energy
dissipation behavior of concrete beams, the strength and corrosion resistance of GFRP bars can
be fully exploited by applying such bars for tensile and stirrup-type reinforcement without causing

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 more damage to the beam. However, when GFRP bars are used for compression reinforcement,
the values and corresponding ratios of the strain energy exhibit consistent upward trends with
increasing GFRP reinforcement ratio; in addition, the maximum strain energy of CB-C2 can reach
1.4 times that of CB-R. It is therefore proposed that the use of GFRP bars for compression
reinforcement should be controlled as much as possible to prevent greater damage when the
compression reinforcements are under great stress.
• In this paper, the bond between the GFRP and the concrete was assumed to be perfect;
subsequent research should fully consider the effect of the bond behavior. The relationship
between the bond performance and the damage properties of GFRP-reinforced concrete beams
under varying load conditions should be characterized, and quantitative research should be
conducted on the damage evolution processes in concrete beams with various GFRP
reinforcement ratios.

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