Structural behavior of FRP enclosed shrinkage-compensating concrete (SHCC) beams made with different expansive agents

Shrinkage of concrete under restricted conditions leads to cracking in concrete structural members, such as beams, decks, and slabs on grade. One possible method of decreasing and delaying the cracking is to use expansive cement concrete known as shrinkage-compensating concrete (SHCC). Hybrid fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) reinforced shrinkage-compensating concrete (SHCC) structural system shows a good potential for delaying concrete cracking and eliminating steel corrosion. A series of tests on the proposed system with regular Portland cement concrete and two different expansive agents (ettringite-system and lime-system) are conducted in this study. The effectiveness of the self prestressing effect associated with SHCC and CFRP has been assessed. Test results were evaluated based on cracking load, crack width, ultimate load, load-deflection and load-strain. These test results show that the developed system performs superior than steel reinforced system in term of cracking resistance, ultimate load capacity and crack width in the studied period. Overall, lime-system SHCC-FRP specimens exhibit the best structural behavior and prestress retention.