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Flexural Behavior of Fiber Reinforced Concrete Beams Confined With FRP

Article in Applied Mechanics and Materials · December 2012

DOI: 10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.256-259.938

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Applied Mechanics and Materials Vols. 256-259 (2013) pp 938-941
© (2013) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland
doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.256-259.938

Flexural Behavior of Fiber Reinforced Concrete Beams Confined With

FRP

Rajkumar.K1, a and Vasumathi A.M 2, b

1
K.Rajkumar,Assistant Professor& Head, Department of Civil Engineering,Bharath Niketan
Engineering College, Tamil Nadu, India.
2
Dr.AM.Vasumathi, Professor & Academic Dean, Department of Civil Engineering, K.L.N. College
Institute of Technology, Tamil Nadu, India.
a
rajstruct.eng@gmail.com

Keywords: Fiber reinforcement; FRP wrapping; polypropylene fiber; two point middle third load.

Abstract. In this paper, an attempt to overcome the problem of brittleness of concrete, by adding
polypropylene fibers to the concrete is made. The performance of the polypropylene fiber reinforced
concrete will be investigated experimentall under two point middle third of monotonic load for
various types of polypropylene fibers and FRP Wrapping.

Introduction
Concrete is acknowledged to be a relatively brittle material when subjected to normal stresses and
impact loads, where tensile strength is only approximately one tenth of its compressive strength. As a
result for these characteristics, concrete member could not support such loads and stresses that usually
take place, mainly on concrete beams and slabs. And also Concrete is poor in ductile property. Thus
concrete structures subjected to dynamic forces such as earthquakes and blast forces, fail without
giving sufficient warning as they are not able to absorb energy. Concrete member reinforced with
continuous reinforcing bars to withstand tensile stresses and compensate for the lack of ductility and
strength. The introduction of fibers, a new form of binder that could combine with cement matrices
was brought in as a solution to develop concrete in view of enhancing its flexural and tensile strength.
Fibers are generally used in one of two forms— short staple randomly dispersed in the cementitious
matrix of a bulk structure, or continuous mesh used in thin sheets. In recent years, someattempts to
weave synthetic fibers into three-dimensional reinforcements have been made. In addition,
fiber-reinforced plastic rods are currently entering the market as replacement of steel bar
reinforcements. Beyond cementitious matrix, fiber- reinforced plastics are finding increasing use in
the civil engineering industry.
The addition of non-metallic fibres such as glass, polyester, polypropylene etc. results in good fresh
concrete properties and reduced early age cracking. The beneficial effects of non-metallic fibres could
be attributed to their high aspect ratios and increased fibre availability (because of lower density as
compared to steel) at a given volume fraction. Because of their lower stiffness, these fibres are
particularly effective in controlling the propagation of micro cracks in the plastic stage of concrete.
However, their contribution to post-cracking behaviour, unlike steel fibres, is not known to be
significant. Most important applications of fibers are generally to prevent or control the tensile
cracking occurring in concrete structures. Structural synthetic fibers are the fibers exhibiting
structurally-effective properties such as increase of toughness and/or load-carrying capacity after
cracking. These synthetic fibers have advantages compared to steel or other fibers in that they are
corrosion-resistant and exhibit high energy absorption capacity. The properties of synthetic fibres
vary widely, in particular with respect to the modulus of elasticity, an important characteristic when
fibres are used for producing composites
Mohamed S. [1] has Investigate the flexural behavior of cantilever concrete beams with main
reinforcement of GFRP.Tara Sen, Shubhalakshmi B.S. and H.N.Jagannatha Reddy [2] focuses
exclusively on flexural behaviour of RCC beams and the Vinyl-Ester bonded GFRP and Epoxy

All rights reserved. No part of contents of this paper may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of TTP,
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 Applied Mechanics and Materials Vols. 256-259 939

bonded GFRP wrapped retrofitted RCC beams. Beams were retrofitted with 1.2 mm Epoxy bonded
GFRP sheets and 0.9 mm Vinyl-Ester bonded GFRP sheets using epoxy resins. The beams were
full-wrapped and strip-wrapped and tested for flexure behavior analysis. Saifullah, M.
Nasir-uz-zaman, S.M.K. Uddin, M.A. Hossain and M.H. Rashid [3] investigate destructive test on
simply supported beam was performed in the laboratory & load-deflection data of that
under-reinforced concrete beams was recorded. After that finite element analysis was carried out by
ANSYS, SAS 2005 by using the same material properties. Finally results from both the computer
modeling and experimental data were compared. Ki Nam Hong, Jae Won Han, Dong Woo Seoand
Sang Hoon Han [4] was discussed flexural strengthening capacity of reinforced concrete (RC)
members strengthened by the near surface mounted (NSM) technique, which is drawing attention as
an alternative to the carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) bonding strengthening technique.
Robert Ravi.S and Prince Arulraj [5] has investigate a new technique has emerged recently which
uses fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) sheets to strengthen beamcolumnjoints whichhave a number of
favorable characteristics such as ease to install, immunity to corrosion. Yasmeen Taleb Obaidat [6]
has investigate reinforced concrete beams retrofitted with carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP).
The objectives of this study were to investigate the behaviour of retrofitted beams experimentally,
develop a finite element model describing the beams, verifying the finite element model against the
experimental results and finally investigating the influence of different parameters on the behaviour
of the retrofitted beams. This research has also shown that ductility of the beams can be improved
through the addition of fibres.

Materials Used
Table 1 Material Property
Characteristic Material Property
Base Resin Synthetic fibre
Length 42mm
Tensile Strength 550 MPa
Surface Texture Continuously embossed
No. fibres per kg >50,000
Specific Gravity 0,90-0,92
Youngs Modulus 8.2 GPa
Melting Point 150-165°C
Ignition Point Over 450

Concrete . Ordinary Portland Cement 53 grade conforming to Indian Standard IS 12269 used in this
investigation. Specific gravity and 28-day strength of the cement was 3.15 and 55 MPa, respectively.
Crushed stones of maximum nominal size of 20 and 12.5 mm were used as coarse aggregates. The
specific gravity of the stone was 2.6 and its water absorption was 1.1%. The fineness modulus,
specific gravity, and water absorption of fine aggregate was 2.58, 2.66, and 0.4%, respectively.
Naphthalene based Superplasticizer (conplast SP430) was used to achieve the workability of the
concrete. M30 grade concrete were used in this investigation.

Polypropylene Fiber. Synthetic fibers are composed of crystalline and non-crystalline regions each
crystal is surrounded by non-crystalline. Synthetic fibers are produced in a variety of types with
different tenacities designed to suit varying market requirement. Synthetic fibers are characterized by
940 Advances in Civil Engineering II

lightweight, good resilience, good thermal stability, high strength, and favorable elongation
properties Barchip ‘Macro’ is a Structural Synthetic fibre reinforcement added to concrete. Synthetic
fiber length of 42mm, Average diameter of 0.24mm and aspect ratio (l/d) of 175. Material Properties
are tabulated in Table 1.

Experimental Investigation
All the twelve beams are tested under simply supported end conditions. Two point loading is adopted
for testing .The testing of beams is done with the help of hydraulic operated jack connected to load
cell. The load is applied the beam with the help of hydraulic jack and the data is recorded from the
data acquisition system, which is attached with the load cell. The value of deflection is also obtained
from the data acquisition system. Out of these twelve beams 4 are control beam, which are tested after
28 days of curing to find out the safe load which is taken as load corresponding to Fig 1 and deflection
of L/250 i.e. 15 mm.

Fig 1 Testing Setup

The experimental programme was designed to study the behaviour of SNFRC under monotonic two
point by testing beams of size 150 mm X 230 mm x 2000 mm. The variables in the study are volume
fraction of the polypropylene fibre, which controls the behaviour of the FRC and spacing of lateral
steel reinforcement, which indicates the degree of confinement provided by laterals. The beam
dimensions of 150mmx230mmx2000mm is taken for analysis and modeled by selecting smeared
rebar property of SOLID 65 Element and also modeled by using discrete reinforcement to study the
variation of stresses along the reinforcement. The beams were casted for testing under monotonic
loading and were casted in four batches. The beams in a batch were divided into two sets. In each set
two identical specimens were cast and tested and the average behaviour was taken to represent the
behaviour for that set of two specimens. Hence in each batch the total number of beams amounted
eight. Out of five sets of a batch, the first set consisted of single layer, second sets consisted of double
layer .Each group, out of four batches, the first batch with 0% fibre, second batch with 0.30% fibre,
third batch with 0.5% fibre and fourth batch with 0.7% fibre were cast. Proper designation was given
for each specimen.

Load Vs Deflection Load Vs Deflection

70 90
80
60
70
50
Load (kN)

60
Load(KN)

Series1 Series1
40 50
Series2 Series2
30 40
Series3 Series3
30
20
20
10 10

0 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 0 2 4 6 8 10

Deflection (mm)
Deflection(mm)

Fig 2 Conventional Concrete Beams Fig 3 Fibre(0.3%)Concrete Beams

 Applied Mechanics and Materials Vols. 256-259 941

Load Vs Defle ction

140

120

100
oad(kN)

0.5%(E)
80
0.7%(E)
60 0.3%(E)
L

40 CONVENTIONAL

20

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30

De fle ction (mm)

Fig 4 Load Vs Deflection Experimental

The load deflection relationships for all types of specimen are shown in Fig.2-Fig.4. Experimentally
and analytically it is observed that beam consists of 0.7% fibre gives good behaviour when compared
to beams consist of other percentages of fibre discussed. The Load Deflection curves are plotted
experimental. The results were hashed out for these loading conditions.

Conclusions
The enhancement in strength and ultimate strain due to confinement of beams is substantial.
Depending on the level of confinement, strength is increased anywhere from 1.2 to 1.8 times the
unconfined strength. While the ultimate strain is increased by 10 to 15 times the unconfined strain.
The fibers improved the cracking behavior of concrete both in the pre-peak and post-peak region of the
load-strain diagram. The compressive strength for 0.5% fiber has increased 5.06% while compared
with plain concrete whereas for 0.7% fiber has increased only 6.10%. An attempt can be made to
study the application of this composite at critical zones in improving the flexural behaviour for
seismic resistant design. Testing of simply supported beam .Lastly, the study could be extended to
include high strength concrete such as, for example, reactive powder concrete with significantly
higher fiber volume ratios.

References
[1] Mohamed S.Issa and S.M.Elzeiny Flexural behavior of cantilever concrete beams reinforced
with glass fiber reinforced polymers (GFRP) bars Journal of Civil Engineering and Construction
Technology Vol. 2(2), (2011), pp. 33-44.
[2] Tara Sen, Shubhalakshmi B.S. and H.N.Jagannatha Reddy “Flexural Charecteristic Study of
RCC Beams Retrofitted using Vinyl Ester Bonded GFRP and Epoxy Bonded GFRP”. (IJAEST)
international journal of advanced engineering sciences and technologies (2011),pp 070 – 075.
[3] Saifullah, M. Nasir-uz-zaman, S.M.K. Uddin, M.A. Hossain and M.H. Rashid Experimental and
Analytical Investigation of Flexural Behavior of Reinforced Concrete Beam International Journal
of Engineering and Technology IJET-IJENS Vol, 11(1),(2011).pp232-239.
[4] Ki Nam Hong, Jae Won Han, Dong Woo Seoand Sang Hoon Han Flexural Response Of
Reinforced Concrete Members Strengthened With Near-Surfaced-Mounted CFRP Strips
International Journal of the Physical Sciences Vol. 6(5), (2011), pp. 948-961.
[5] Raafat El-Hacha and Mohamed Gaafar Flexural strengthening of reinforced concrete beams
using prestressed, near-surfacemounted CFRP bars PCI Journal (2011).
[6] Robert Ravi.S and Prince Arulraj.G Experimental Investigation on Behavior of Reinforced
Concrete beam Column Joints Retrofitted with GFRP-AFRP Hybrid Wrapping International
Journal of Civil and Structural Engineering Vol.1 (20) (2010), pp.845-850.

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