Flexural Performance of Basalt Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Prestressed Concrete Beams

Basalt fiber-reinforced polymer (BFRP) composite is one of the promising structural materials recently introduced to the construction industry as internal reinforcement for the purpose of prestressing concrete. In this study, experimental and analyt-ical investigations have been carried out to assess the flexural performance of BFRP-prestressed concrete (PSC) beams designed as over-reinforced, under-reinforced, and significantly under -reinforced, as well as non-prestressed concrete beams. The assess-ment has been made based on the flexural strength, serviceability, and deformability/ductility. The current findings have revealed that even though the non-prestressed beams have exhibited a compa-rable flexural strength and good deformability, they did not satisfy the serviceability requirements of deflection and crack width. On the other hand, the significantly under-reinforced PSC beams have satisfied the serviceability and strength requirements, however, exhibited reduced cracking and poor deformability. The over-and under-reinforced PSC beams have performed reasonably well in strength and serviceability performances. The partial prestressing of the beams with multiple layers of tendons has been found effec-tive in improving the ductility by introducing a kind of progressive failure based on sequential rupturing of the BFRP tendons. Thus, it is concluded that the proposed under-reinforced design may offer the potential to avoid the sudden or catastrophic failure typically experienced by the single-layered fully prestressed concrete beams, and may hence be considered besides the over-reinforced design recommended in most of the international codes/standards.