One-Way Shear Strength of FRP–Reinforced Concrete Members Without Stirrups: Design Provision Review

Abstract

The American Concrete Institute recently updated their one-way shear provisions for steel–reinforced concrete (RC), and it is time to consider updating provisions for one-way shear in fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP)-reinforced concrete (FRP–RC). The shear strength of FRP–RC is lower than steel–RC mainly because FRP, particularly glass–FRP, has a much lower modulus of elasticity than steel. This study evaluates the performance of current design provisions at predicting the one-way shear strength of RC members without stirrups that are internally reinforced with longitudinal FRP bars, based on 147 tests available in the literature. Further, shear parameter effects (concrete strength, size effect, span to effective depth ratio, modulus of elasticity, and longitudinal reinforcement ratio) were also investigated. One-way ANOVA analysis was used to classify each provision, and results show that the codes, standards, and guidelines are identified as more consistent groups compared with the proposed models. The method proposed in the CSA S806-12 standard is the most consistent of the studied approaches at predicting the shear strength of the tested members with a mean predicted-to-experimental strength closest to one and the minimum average absolute error.