Shear Strength of Lightweight Concrete Structural Elements Reinforced with FRP Bars: Experimental Studies vs. Code...

Area of Science:

• Civil Engineering
• Materials Science
• Structural Engineering

Background:

• Lightweight concrete (LWC) reduces structural dead weight but is susceptible to corrosive substance penetration due to high permeability.
• Fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) bars are recommended for reinforcing concrete in corrosive environments to prevent steel rebar corrosion.
• Limited experimental data exists for the shear strength of structural elements made of LWC and reinforced with FRP bars.

Purpose of the Study:

• To experimentally determine the shear strengths of LWC/FRP structural elements (beams and slabs).
• To compare experimental shear strengths with code predictions from eight different design codes.
• To assess the accuracy of existing design codes for LWC/FRP elements and identify the most reliable provisions.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication and testing of 50 structural elements made of LWC and reinforced with FRP bars.
• Experimental determination of shear strengths (V_exp) for all tested elements.
• Comparison of V_exp with code-predicted shear strengths (V_code) from eight international design codes.

Main Results:

• Calculation of the conformity coefficient (V_exp/V_code) to evaluate code prediction accuracy.
• Analysis of the entire population of test results to assess the performance of different design provisions.
• Identification of the recent Eurocode as providing the most accurate shear strength predictions for LWC/FRP elements.

Conclusions:

• The study provides crucial experimental data on the shear behavior of LWC/FRP structural elements.
• Existing design codes show varying degrees of accuracy in predicting the shear strength of these elements.
• The recent Eurocode is recommended for designing LWC/FRP structural elements due to its superior predictive capability.