DESIGN RECOMMENDATIONS ON FLEXURAL CAPACITY OF FRP-REINFORCED CONCRETE BEAMS

9 FRP-reinforced concrete beams were tested under bending moment. Based on the testing results, referring to the results of other experiments, and performing nonlinear finite analysis for 38 FRP-reinforced concrete beams, the flexural capacity of FRP-reinforced concrete beams was analyzed systematically. It is shown that the failure mode of FRP-reinforced concrete beams can be classified as the tension failure mode, the balanced failure mode, and the compression failure mode. This paper suggests the minimum reinforcement ratio of FRP bars as well as the relationship between the reinforcement ratio and the failure mode. The nominal yield strength of FRP bars is also given. Finally, design recommendations for flexural capacity of FRP-reinforced concrete beams are proposed. Compared with ACI 440.1R-01, the proposed formulas yield estimations more close to the experimental results.