Experimental study on the flexural behavior of ECC-concrete hybrid composite beams reinforced with FRP and steel bars

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the flexural behavior of engineered cementitious composite (ECC)-concrete hybrid composite beams reinforced with fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) bars and steel bars. Thirty two hybrid reinforced composite beams having various ECC height replacement ratio and combinations of FRP and steel reinforcements were experimentally tested to failure in flexure. Test results showed that cracking, yield and ultimate moments as well as the stiffness of hybrid and ECC beams are improved compared with traditional concrete beams having the same reinforcement, owing to the excellent tensile properties of ECC materials. The average crack spacing and width decrease with the increase of ECC height replacement ratio. The ductility of hybrid reinforced composite beams is higher than that of traditional reinforced concrete beams while their practical reinforcement ratios are similar. Reinforced ECC beams show considerable energy dissipation capacity owing to ECC’s excellent deformation ability. Considering the constitutive models of materials, compatibility and equilibrium conditions, formulas for the prediction of cracking, yield and ultimate moments as well as deflections of hybrid reinforced ECC-concrete composite beams are developed. The proposed formulas are in good agreement with the experimental results. A comprehensive parametric analysis is, then, conducted to illustrate the effect of reinforcement, ECC and concrete properties on the moment capacity, curvature, ductility and energy dissipation of composite beams.