Title:
Flexural Performance of Glass Fiber-Reinforced Polymer and Highly Ductile Stainless-Steel Bar Hybrid-Reinforced Concrete Beams
Author(s):
Qi Cao, Teng Zhang, Shu Cao, Zhimin Wu, and Jinjin Xu
Publication:
Structural Journal
Volume:
123
Issue:
3
Appears on pages(s):
45-58
Keywords:
ductility; flexural behavior; glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars; hybrid reinforcement; stainless steel (SS) bars
DOI:
10.14359/51749489
Date:
5/1/2026
Abstract:
To improve the ductility of fiber-reinforced polymer-reinforced concrete structures, hybrid reinforcement with glass fiber-
reinforced polymer (GFRP) and stainless steel (SS) was selected in this paper. Nine seawater sea-sand concrete (SSC) beams were designed and tested. The effects of concrete strength, effective reinforcement ratio ρ2, and reinforcement type in the tensile zone on the flexural behavior of the beams were analyzed. The test results showed that with the same concrete strength and effective reinforcement ratio ρ2, the ductility of hybrid-reinforced beams is higher than GFRP-reinforced beams. The comparison of midspan deflection of the GFRP bars and hybrid-reinforced beams not only depends on the reinforcement type but also on the total stiffness of reinforcement before SS bars yielded in the tensile zone and whether they yielded in the tensile zone. Meanwhile, theoretical analysis was conducted for cracking moments, ultimate flexural load-carrying capacity, and midspan deflections. A new ultimate flexural load-carrying calculation equation was proposed, which predicted the experimental values in good agreement.
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