Ductility of FRP plated flexural members

The design of reinforced concrete (RC) flexural members such as beams, slabs and columns is intrinsically based on the inherent ductility of the member. In reinforced concrete beams and slabs, ductility is generally achieved by using ‘under-reinforced’ sections and generally governed by the neutral axis depth parameter ku which requires ultimate failure by concrete crushing at a specified strain εc. As the plates of fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) plated RC beams can fracture or debond before the concrete crushes at εc, the ku approach is not directly applicable. Hence, new fundamental approaches and a deeper understanding of ductility are required which are the subjects of this paper.