Assessing the Flexural Performance of RC Beams with Application of Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) Bars

Abstract

This study investigated the flexural performance of RC beams reinforced and strengthened with Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) bars. Tropical climate effects such as heat and rain throughout the year may cause the concrete surface to gradually erode and it may expose the steel inside the beam. If the steel is exposed, it may be oxidized and thus decreasing the strength of the RC structure. To avoid this situation from happening, reinforcing and strengthening method may be applied as an alternative as it is believed to be able to increase the durability of the structure. Three beams were constructed in this study. The first beam is a control beam. Second is a beam that longitudinally reinforced with steel at compression and GFRP bars at tension. The third beam is a beam reinforced with steel and strengthened by NSM method with GFRP bar at the tension zone. All three beams have the same dimension of 125mm x 300mm x 1800mm (width; height; length). All three beams were subjected to flexural test under four point static loads until failure. The result shows that the beams reinforced and strengthened with GFRP bars were seen to have higher stiffness compared to the control beam by 8% and 16% respectively. This proves that reinforcing and strengthening the RC members using FRP material can significantly improve the flexural capacity.