Prediction of shear strength for CFRP reinforced concrete beams without stirrups

Design guidelines in international codes show noticeable differences with regards to shear strength prediction of concrete beams reinforced with Fiber Reinforced Polymers, (FRP). These discrepancies in shear strength predictions are attributed to many factors affecting the shear behavior, such as shear span/depth ratio (a/d), beam size, rectangular and flanged cross-sectional shape (R-section and T-section), and concrete compressive strength. Shear resistance of beams longitudinally reinforced with carbon FRP, (CFRP), bars is not well defined in the literature compared to beams reinforced with steel bars. This is mainly attributed to the low modulus of elasticity of CFRP compared to traditional steel reinforcement resulting in relatively high strains generated in CFRP reinforcement and consequently wider cracks and lower contribution of the aggregate interlocking mechanism as well as dowel action in shear resistance. This paper numerically investigates the behavior of concrete beams reinforced in flexure with CFRP bars without transverse reinforcement to quantify concrete contribution in shear resistance. Specimens with R and T sections having different shear span-to-depth ratio, concrete compressive strength, and longitudinal CFRP reinforcement ratios are studied to determine the concrete contribution to shear resistance. The nonlinear program ATENA is used to simulate the actual behavior of concrete beams failing in shear and is verified against experimental results gathered from the literature to check the validity of the numerical model. The comparison shows good agreement between experimental and numerical results with a difference of 6% and then a parametric study is conducted to provide a better understanding of the effect of each parameter on the shear behavior of concrete beams reinforced with CFRP bars. The results of numerical models are compared to their counterparts predicted using different equations in codes and guidelines. It is found that the shear capacity of T-section is higher than R-section by about 15% to 25% mainly due to a change in cracking pattern due to the presence of the flange. Furthermore, the shear failure load increased by increasing the longitudinal reinforcement ratio as a result of decreasing strain and enhancement of dowel action. The effect of increasing concrete compressive strength was more pronounced on the shear capacity in arch action as opposed to diagonal tension regions. Finally, an equation is proposed to predict the shear capacity of concrete beams reinforced in flexure with CFRP bars. The shear capacity predicted by the proposed equation provided a good agreement with experimental results for 163 beams with a mean value of 1.01 and COV of 0.17.