Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Steel- and GFRP-Reinforced Concrete Beams Subject to Fire Exposure

Abstract

This study investigates the behavior of three concrete beams reinforced with steel and GFRP bars under fire exposure. The fire tests of three beams were conducted including one control steel-reinforced concrete (RC) beam and two GFRP-RC beams. The beams were exposed to fire according to the standard fire curve ISO 834 for 3 h. The investigation parameters included the reinforcement types (i.e., steel and GFRP bars) and diameter of GFRP bars. Based on the experimental results, during fire exposure, the deflection rate of the steel-RC beam was lower than the ones reinforced with GFRP bars. The critical temperatures measured at steel and GFRP bars in the steel-RC and GFRP-RC beams were 593 °C and 300–330 °C, respectively along with the fire durations of 83 and 33–36.4 min, respectively. The different GFRP bar sizes did not affect the fire resistance process. The steel-RC beam had greater fire resistance than the GFRP-RC beams. All test specimens had a fire resistance time lower than two hours. In addition, the 2D simplified finite element method (FEM) using commercial software ANSYS was performed to predict the thermal response of the beam section. Compared with experimental results, the FE model can reasonably predict the thermal responses of the beam sections.