Evaluation of prestressed basalt fiber and hybrid fiber reinforced polymer tendons under marine environment

• Prestressed BFRP tendon under marine environment.
• Effect of prestressing ratio on mechanical degradation.
• Hybrid effect on degradation rate.

This paper studies the degradation of the tensile properties of prestressed basalt fiber-reinforced polymer (BFRP) and hybrid FRP tendons in a marine environment. Two levels of prestressing toward typical prestressing applications were applied in the experiment. The variations of tensile strength, elastic modulus and the relevant coefficient of variation (CV) were first investigated. The effect of prestressing on tensile property degradation was discussed. The characteristics of prestressed hybrid FRP tendons in a marine environment simulated by a salt solution were clarified. Moreover, a prediction model of BFRP tendons with different levels of prestressing in a marine environment was proposed. The results show that the BFRP tendons’ superior resistance to salt corrosion and the degradation rate of their tensile strength is nonlinearly proportional to the prestressing ratios, whereas the elastic modulus remains constant regardless the prestressing ratio and aging duration. Although prestressing on BFRP tendons accelerates degradation, it can still lower the variation of the strength of the BFRP tendon. Hybridization can lower the degradation rate of basalt and carbon FRP (B/CFRP) without prestressing, whereas basalt and steel-wire FRP (B/SFRP) exhibit much faster degradation due to the internal corrosive steel wires. The model regression by the Napierian logarithm equation well represents the degradation trend of BFRP tendons under different levels of prestressing.