Structural behavior of FRP-reinforced concrete beams

In this paper, the nonlinear structural deformation behavior of FRP-reinforced concrete beams is investigated by using a newly developed one-dimensional composite beam element with only two nodes and two degrees of freedom at each node. In the new element, both concrete and reinforcing bars are modeled simultaneously and Timoshenko's composite beam functions are employed to represent the displacement interpolations functions. Geometric nonlinearly and material nonlinearity have been accounted for in the modeling so as to provide the most accurate prediction of the structural behavior. The influences of a series of parameters on the nonlinear structural behavior of the FRP-reinforced concrete beams including different type of reinforcing bars (steel, CFRP, GFRP, and basalt fiber) and different ratios of the reinforcement are studied. The investigated result will provide important guidance and information for performance-based structural design of FRP-reinforced concrete beams