Experimental Testing of GFRP-Reinforced Concrete Beams with Mid-Span Lap Splices Utilizing Straight- and Hooked-End Bars

Numerical Study of GFRP-reinforced Concrete Beams with Straight and Hooked-end Bar Lap Splices

“…All beam specimens were subjected to four-point flexural bending until failure. Experimental results show that the 180-degree hooked-end GFRP bars had considerably stronger anchorage with concrete than straight-end bars, ultimately increasing the flexural strength and stiffness of the tested concrete beams [24] .…”

“…Four full-size concrete beams, each reinforced with three GFRP bars with lap splices at the beam midspan, were experimentally tested in a prior study by Nour et al [24] . Two of the beam specimens had straight-end bars, as shown in Figure 4(a), while the other two specimens had hooked-end bars, as shown in Figure 4(b), to investigate the bond strength between the GFRP bars and concrete at the beam midspan bar lap splice's location [24] .…”

“…However, the concrete beam specimens with hooked-end bar lap splices had stronger bar anchorage than the straightend bar specimens. More details of the experimental results can be found in the study by Nour et al [24] .…”

“…Nevertheless, no sufficient data exists on the bond strength of 180-degree hooked-end GFRP bars with concrete in a full beam test setup. One of the very few studies conducted in this regard is an experimental study by Nour et al [24] on four full-size concrete beams with mid-span bar lap splices. Two configurations were used for reinforcing lap splices; two beam specimens had straight-end bar lap splices, while the other two had 180-degree hooked-end bar lap splices.…”

“…Sensitivity analyses were performed to determine the most efficient model regarding mesh density, dilation angle, and viscosity parameters. After successful validation of the developed FE model against the experimental results obtained from the study conducted by Nour et al [24] , a parametric study was completed to investigate the effect of the number and diameter of GFRP bars, as well as the effect of the splice length on the overall behaviour of the reinforced concrete beams. In addition, the material of the reinforcing bars was changed to compare the behaviour of the beam with the same reinforcement configurations, e.g., bar diameter and number, but with a different material such as conventional steel.…”