Replacement of steel with GFRP for sustainable reinforced concrete

Corrosion of steel in reinforced concrete structures has cost a significant amount of resources globally over the past few decades. Glass fiber reinforcement polymer (GFRP) bars present a feasible and cost-effective solution to the problem of steel corrosion. The aim of this paper is to let engineers gain a better understanding of the overall behavior of GFRP as internal reinforcement so that they have more confidence using it as a sustainable material. This paper provides a few significant outcomes from an extensive experimental program underway at the University of Toronto. The work discussed here provides a summary of the tests on 24 GFRP reinforced beams, 60 GFRP direct tension specimens and 20 GFRP confined columns, and evaluates the behavior of GFRP-RC in flexure, shear, tension and compression. A recently proposed tension-stiffening model has been incorporated in analytical modeling of GFRP-RC beams and the results show significant improvement in the prediction of deflection and stiffness of the beams. Results from column tests show that GFRP bars used as longitudinal reinforcement can resist compressive stresses in excess of 700 MPa and GFRP lateral reinforcement can confine concrete core more effectively than steel.