A comparative study between CFRP and steel shear reinforcement bar in self compacting reinforced concrete beams / Mohsen Kobraei

Fibre Reinforced Polymer (FRP) as an alternative to steel Reinforced Concrete (RC) beams has become increasingly popular. The main advantages of FRP include high strength to weight ratio and its corrosion resistance. Such benefits in the field of civil engineering are hard to ignore. In this work, the effect of using Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) bars as shear reinforcement in RC beams has been studied. All beams were cast using High Strength Self-Compacting Concrete (HSCC). Self-Compacting Concrete (SCC) offers many advantages such as having a low noise-level when used in plants and construction sites; eliminating problems associated with vibrations; requiring less labour; improving quality and durability; and faster construction of structures. The shear behaviours and modes of failure for seven full scale laboratory specimens have been analysed. These specimens were shear reinforced using CFRP and steel stirrups. The shear capacity and behaviour of RC beams using CFRP stirrups were compared with the shear those of RC beams using steel stirrups. Further, this work has examined the effect of reducing CFRP shear reinforcement spacings with the shear behaviour of reinforced concrete beams. Furthermore, in this research the ultimate moment capacity, load-deflection relationship, the crack initiation load, and the crack width of the beams were studied. Among other the results of this study show that using internally straight CFRP shear reinforcement is an excellent alternative to using the normal steel stirrups in RC beams. The use of propose shear reinforcements will help to avoid brittle rupture and causes beams to exhibit more deflections. In addition, this study showed that the RC beam with CFRP stirrups, and the RC beams with straight steel bar as shear reinforcement, showed iv similar behaviour. The beams with CFRP stirrups bar had smaller cracks spacing and they are more resistant to propagation of shear cracks