Title: Effect of tension-stiffening on finite element analysis of glass fibre reinforced polymer-reinforced concrete members

Authors: Md Shah Alam; Amgad Hussein

Addresses: Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Bahrain, P.O. Box 32038, Bahrain ' Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL, A1B 3X5, Canada

Abstract: Glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars have different mechanical properties than conventional steel reinforcing bars. Concrete members reinforced with these bars behave differently than steel reinforced members. Tension stiffening is the properties of carrying tension in between cracks of reinforced concrete members. This paper presents the results of an investigation into the effect of tension stiffening in nonlinear finite element analysis of concrete beam reinforced with glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars. The beam that was investigated was identical to a test beam. The test beam was reinforced in longitudinal direction and there was no shear reinforcement, i.e., shear critical beam. The influence of tension stiffening on different behavioural aspects including load deflection behaviour, ultimate load, and deflection are discussed along with a comparison with the test results of the beam. The analysis was carried out using commercial finite element analysis (FEA) software, ABAQUS. The concrete model was calibrated before using in the analysis. The results revealed that the tension stiffening model has great influence on FEA of GFRP reinforced beam and some of the models are not suitable for FEA of shear critical GFRP reinforced concrete beam.

Keywords: reinforced concrete; material models; shear behaviour; finite element analysis; FEA; GFRP reinforcement; tension-stiffening.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCAET.2022.120814

International Journal of Computer Aided Engineering and Technology, 2022 Vol.16 No.2, pp.194 - 207

Received: 30 Oct 2018
Accepted: 28 Mar 2019
Published online: 11 Feb 2022 *

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