Cracking and Deformability of Concrete Flexural Sections with Fiber Reinforced Polymer

Abstract

When fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) bars are used as reinforcement in concrete sections in flexure, it is necessary to control the width of cracks by limiting the tensile stress in the FRP in service to a small fraction of its tensile strength. Parametric studies show that when the cross-sectional area of the FRP reinforcement is based on a permissible strain at service, rectangular and T-sections exhibit large deformation before failure; thus, there is no need to check the deformability.