Title:
Flexural Behavior of Ultra-High-Performance Seawater Sea-Sand Concrete Beams Reinforced with Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Bars
Author(s):
Fen Zhou, Lijuan Li, Yunxing Du, Fei Peng, and Deju Zhu
Publication:
Structural Journal
Volume:
123
Issue:
3
Appears on pages(s):
95-110
Keywords:
fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP); flexural behavior; ultra-high-performance seawater sea-sand concrete (UHPSSC)
DOI:
10.14359/51749490
Date:
5/1/2026
Abstract:
To promote the application of fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) bar-reinforced ultra-high-performance seawater sea-sand concrete (FRP-UHPSSC) structures in marine construction, four-point static bending tests were carried out on 16 FRP-UHPSSC beams with different reinforcement ratios, cross-section heights, and types of FRP bars to investigate the ultimate load-carrying capacity, the midspan deflection, and the failure modes of the beams. The experimental results show that all the test beams had brittle failure, and the failure mode of the beams is shear failure when the ratio of the actual reinforcement ratio to the balanced one is higher than 2.73. Increasing the reinforcement ratio and the beam section height improve both bending moment at ultimate load and flexural stiffness at the service limit state. The steel-FRP composite bar (SFCB)-reinforced UHPSSC beams have the maximal bending moment at ultimate load, and the basalt fiber-reinforced polymer (BFRP) bar-reinforced UHPSSC beams have the optimal ductility. The deviation of ultimate bending moment and midspan deflection obtained by proposed calculation method is reduced from 7.5 to 2.8%, and from 15 to 3%, respectively, compared with current specifications for FRP-reinforced concrete structures.
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