Shear Behavior of Fiber Reinforced Concrete Beams Reinforced with Basalt FRP Bars

Abstract

This paper is focusing mainly on studying the shear behavior of basalt fiber reinforced concrete (BFRC) beams reinforced with basalt (BFRP) bars. Reinforced concrete beams reinforced with basalt bars were tested under shear loading test until failure. The beams were reinforced with sand coated BFRP bars as a flexural reinforcement, in addition to the discrete basalt macro-fibers, which were added to the concrete mix at two different volume fractions namely, 0.75%, and 1.5%. Two mixes with the aforementioned volume fractions were prepared and cured for 28 days before testing. The main parameters were the reinforcement ratio, the span to depth ratio and the volume fraction of discrete basalt minibars. Test Results showed a significant increase in the shear strength as the reinforcement ratio increases. In addition, using lower span to depth ratio resulted in an increase in the shear capacity. It has also revealed that using higher percentages of discrete basalt fibers enhanced the shear capacity, reduced the beam deflection, reduced the cracks width and propagation, and improved the beam ductility before failure. Keywords— Shear behavior, Basalt bars, Basalt macro-fibers, Beam ductility.