Experimental and Numerical Evaluation of GFRP-Reinforced Concrete Beams Under Consecutive Low-Velocity Impact Loading

In this paper, both experimental and numerical investigations are used to evaluate the impact resistance of concrete beams reinforced with Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (FRP) and steel bars. Due to the brittle behavior of FRP materials, the results are compared to the response of a typical concrete beam reinforced with steel bars. In this research, the impact force is applied by dropping a projectile from different heights. In order to verify the experimental results, numerical analysis is conducted using ABAQUS software. The results obtained from this study are as follows: the maximum deflection of Glass FRP (GFRP) reinforced concrete beam is greater than steel-reinforced concrete beam. However, the residual deflections in FRP-reinforced beam are lower than steel-reinforced beam, and the total resistance and stability of FRP-reinforced beams are higher than steel-reinforced beams.