13

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 GENERAL

Numerous investigations were conducted by the researchers

throughout the world in the area of retrofitting of RC beams. Several
parameters were taken starting from the type of strengthening material,
wrapping scheme, number of layers, grade of concrete and so on for both
experimental and analytical models.

In order to assess and evaluate the earlier work done on beams

internally and externally reinforced with textile reinforcements and to identify
an effective external strengthening method, the structure of reinforcing
material and adhesives for bonding, a detailed review of literature was
undertaken. The literature survey comprises two sections. The first section
highlights various experimental and theoretical studies carried on beams
externally bonded with textile composites. The second section focuses on
flexural study of beams internally reinforced with GFRP bars.

2.2 TEXTILE STRENGTHENED RC BEAMS

The past decades have witnessed extensive research being carried

out on FRP strengthening of concrete. To overcome the delamination failure
in FRP strengthened beams, a substitute material known as textile
reinforcements made of AR Glass and Kevlar fabric with open meshes is
introduced. Only a limited amount of work has been carried out on textile
strengthened beams.
 14

Peled and Bentur (2003) examined the influence of fabric geometry

on flexural performance. They tested the fabrics made of low modulus fibres
(polyethylene and polypropylene), and one high modulus fibre (High density
polyethylene-HDPE) with three different geometry such as plain weave, weft
insertion knitted and short weft knit under flexure. The test results showed
that the bond and flexure performance was influenced by the shape and nature
of yarn in the fabric as well as modulus of yarn. Based on geometry the low
modulus plain weave fabric showed better flexure performance than short knit
weft and knitted weft insertion.

Holler et al (2004) proposed a numerical model for TRC as a

layered continuum of uniaxial layers of reinforcement and plane stress layers
of concrete. The bond between reinforcement and cement matrix was obtained
with two-bond interfaces. To simulate the model, an experiment with tensile
bar and four point bending was conducted and the test results were confirmed
with simulation model.

Triantafillou and Papanicolaou (2005) proposed Textile Reinforced

Mortar (TRM) strengthening technique for seismic retrofitting and shear
strengthening of concrete structures which resulted as a feasible alternative to
FRP. The specimens tested include beams of 2.6m length with a cross section
of 150 x 300 mm, cylindrical specimens with diameter 150mm, height
300mm and short columns with cross section 250mm x 250mm, and height
700 mm. The fabric mesh of 6mm square made of woven, knitted or unwoven
carbon fibre rovings in two directions was wrapped with epoxy resin or
inorganic mortar. The variables studied were the number of layers, type of
bonding agent and method of wrapping. For jacketing the cylindrical
specimen and short column, two types of mortar and epoxy were used.
Experiments were conducted to compare the cylindrical specimen with two
mortars, cylindrical specimen with mortar versus resin and short columns
 15

with mortar versus resin. The report showed that the textile mortar jackets
provide greater gain in compressive strength and deformability than FRP
jackets. In case of shear deficient beams the mortar impregnated two layers of
textiles was quite effective in increasing the shear resistance.

An extensive research was conducted by Hausding et al (2006) to

examine how to utilize fully the tensile strength of reinforcing high
performance fibre in TRC. They achieved the maximum utilization of tensile
strength by adjusting the textile machinery and adopting new, improved
testing methods besides suggesting that the stitch-bonded multi-piles were
used to increase the load capacity of about 80% in case of repairing of
concrete masts.

Hegger et al (2006) investigated the load bearing behaviour and

simulation of TRC. The experiment included tensile test on fine grained
concrete with a maximum grain size of 0.6mm reinforced with AR-Glass fibre
fabric of one, two, and three layers. The influence of the binding,
reinforcement ratio, fibre orientation, and impregnation on the strength, load
carrying capacity was reported. The result showed that the strength of
reinforcement was indirectly proportional to the reinforcement ratio and good
bond property with increase in ultimate strength of the fabric was noticed in
case of epoxy impregnation of fabric. They also developed a numerical
modeling covering micro, meso and macro level to validate the behaviour of
TRC.

Peled et al (2006) undertook pull out test to verify the effects of

fabrication method on bond between cement matrix and fabric. They reported
that pultrution process had given better bonding due to impregnation of the
fabric during pultrution, than casting and vacuum condition. This was
confirmed by micro structural analysis of specimen using Scanned Electron
Microscope (SEM).
 16

Toutanji et al (2006) conducted experiments to find the flexural

behaviour of beams externally strengthened with CFRP laminates wrapped
with inorganic matrix. The beams were strengthened at tension face with three
to six layers of CFRP sheets and subjected to four point loading and the
deflection, midspan strain, and failure mode were recorded up to failure. They
reported that for three and four layers of FRP reinforced beams the failure
was FRP rupture and for five and six layers, the failure was delamination of
FRP. They also concluded that the ductility of strengthened beam was
reduced better than control beam.

Bournas et al (2007) examined the effectiveness of TRM and FRP

on the confinement of short prisms, full scaled RC column, and poorly
detailed old RC column situated in seismic area. The short prism was
subjected to concentric compressive loading whereas full scaled column was
subjected to cyclic loading. The result showed about 10% lesser effect in
terms of strength and deformation capacity of TRM compared to FRP. On the
other hand TRM is very effective and equal to FRP under cyclic deformation
capacity and energy dissipation. They also compared the experimental results
with codal formulations.

Haubler and Hartig (2007) investigated the complexity in the bond

between concrete and filaments of AR Glass by conducting experiment on
tension plate reinforced with 3 to 6 layers of AR Glass yarns. An early failure
of single filament as well as bond and friction behaviour of filaments and
concrete was described by developing a mechanical model.

Papanicolaou et al (2007) compared the experimental results of

unreinforced masonry (URM) walls externally bonded with TRM and FRP.
Three types of specimen such as shear wall, beam-column and beam were
subjected to cyclic in plane loading and the investigation was made to arrive
at the effectiveness of strengthening based on the matrix material, number of
 17

layers, and the compressive stress level applied to shear wall and beam-
columns. They concluded that compared with resin impregnated counterparts,
mortar impregnated textiles resulted lower in strength but higher in terms of
deformability.

Weiland et al (2007) studied the flexural and shear strengthening of

RC structures with TRC and concluded that TRC increases the ultimate load
bearing capacity as well as serviceability. The deflections, crack width and
crack spacing reduced considerably in TRC strengthened beams.

Blanksvard and Taljesten (2008) studied the different cement based

systems for structural upgrading adopting four systems namely TRC, FRC,
TRM and Mineral Based Composites (MBC). The variables tested were the
number of layers and impregnation of fabric in cement matrix. They
concluded that a limited number of layers and mechanical anchorage delayed
or even avoided the debonding. During testing, they observed that
impregnated CFRP resulted in a more effective strain distribution than non-
impregnated sheets, grids, or textiles which generated layer slips. They also
reported that fibres in mortar as adhesive had made the structure more durable
by delaying the large crack openings with the help of crack bridging ability of
fibres.

Brukner et al (2008) examined the improvement in the effects of

multi axial AR Glass fabric strengthened RC T-beams by the application of
additional mechanical anchoring. They compared the test results of T-beams
strengthened with and without anchoring and concluded that the load carrying
capacity of textile strengthened beams with anchoring was more than that of
the beams without anchoring.
 18

2.3 NEAR SURFACE MOUNTED BAR STRENGTHENING

De Lorenzis et al (2000) investigated the flexural and shear

performance of T-beams upgraded with different sizes of NSM CFRP and
GFRP rods. The spacing of the rod, end anchorage of bars, amount of internal
steel shear reinforcement, and strengthening scheme were the parameters
taken into account for the experiment. They observed two failure modes,
debonding of FRP and splitting of concrete cover of main reinforcement. And
found that anchoring the FRP in the flange or use of 450 rod at closer intervals
had prevented the debonding. They concluded that there had been an increase
in load capacity ranging from 25.7% to 44.3% for beams strengthened in
bending and for shear 105.7% with that of control beam.

Nanni (2000) studied the application of FRP in real projects such as

strengthening of damaged bridge deck slab by externally bonded laminates
and NSM technique, and replacement of deteriorated steel pipe culvert bridge
with new internally GFRP reinforced concrete box culvert bridge. The
damaged bridge deck was strengthened and tested before demolishing to gain
the knowledge about the efficiency of the strengthening techniques.

El-Hacha et al (2005) performed tests on NSM CFRP and GFRP

strengthened beams to examine the serviceability, ultimate limit states, and
effect of tension stiffening due to strengthening. They compared the NSM
with Externally Bonded (EB) strips and sheets with the same material and
axial stiffness. The experimental results were validated by developing an
analytical model. They concluded that the NSM FRP bars had resulted in
higher ultimate load than EB FRP because of the maximum utilization of the
tensile strength of FRP.
 19

Jung et al (2005) performed experiments on NSM and Externally

Bonded Reinforcements (EBR) beams. The debonding failure of CFRP was
prevented with the help of the mechanical interlocking grooves. They
reported that NSM CFRP reinforcements had been more efficient in flexure
than EBR CFRP. They also observed that the ultimate load of NSM
mechanical grooves was 15% higher than the common NSM.

Kang et al (2005) assessed the efficiency of NSM CFRP laminates

based on the groove depth and spacing of laminates by carrying out
experiments as well as performing a nonlinear finite element analysis using
ABAQUS. Based on the analytical study it was concluded that the increase in
groove depth upto a limit had affected the efficiency of strengthening and
with the maximum depth of groove of 35mm, the NSM reached 1.6 times
increased load capacity compared to control specimen. The spacing of CFRP
laminates, the other parameter considered in analytical study, showed a
smooth relationship between the variation of spacing and ultimate loading. It
was found that the best possible range of spacing had ended with higher
strengthening efficiency.

Kishi et al (2005) investigated the flexural performance and

debonding behaviour of NSM strengthened RC members. For NSM the
reinforcements were Aramid FRP rods and the results were compared with
the beams strengthened using Aramid sheets at the tension face by keeping
the axial stiffness of two reinforcing materials the same. They concluded that
the beams strengthened with NSM rods had failed by the formation of flexural
and splitting cracks in the bending region and debonding started in the shear
region because of the critical diagonal cracks. For AFRP strengthened beams
the failure was the debonding of the sheet with rupture and the damage of the
lower concrete cover portion.
 20

Wu et al (2005) investigated the effect of shear span ratio on

debonding of NSM FRP and the influencing factors for effective bonding
length using Finite element analysis and nonlinear fracture mechanics. It was
concluded that the increase in shear span ratio had increased the effective
bonding length but not macro debonding. They also revealed that adhesives
with low interfacial stiffness had helped in reducing the stress concentration
in FRP leading to delayed debonding of FRP.

Balendran et al (2006) conducted experiments on ten beams

strengthened with NSM GFRP bars. The variables of the experiment were the
type of concretes such as lightweight polystyrene aggregate concrete and
normal concrete, type of reinforcing bars (GFRP and steel), and type of
adhesives. They discussed the moment deflection, ultimate moment, and
modes of failure and reported that the flexural stiffness and bending capacity
of beams with NSM GFRP bars had improved and the ultimate moment was
increased with a range of 23% to 53% with respect to conventional beam.

Castro et al (2007) examined the effectiveness of NSM as external

reinforcement on T-beams. They used CFRP and GFRP bars as well as CFRP
strips and laminates for the experiment and concluded that the ultimate load
for all the strengthened beams had been higher than the estimated flexural
failure load.

Yost et al (2007) conducted experiment on 12 full-scale concrete

beams externally reinforced by NSM CFRP strips. By adopting three different
ratios of steel reinforcements and two different ratios of CFRP, the yield and
ultimate strength, failure modes, and ductility were discussed from the
deflection and strain data. The results showed that the CFRP strengthened
beams had given rise to yield strength ranging from 9 to 30%, and 10 to 78%
in the ultimate strength compared to control specimen.
 21

Michael et al (2008) conducted experiments on seven bridge deck

segment specimens strengthened with three NSM bars namely GFRP, CFRP
and MMFX bars. These bars were embedded in epoxy and cement grout. The
results indicated that the flexural capacity of Epoxy bonded NSM decks had
increased to 1.4 to 1.8 times and for cement grouted NSM decks 1.3 to 1.4
times that of control specimen. They also observed bar slippage or grout
splitting failure in the cement grouted NSM specimen.

Al-Mahmoud et al (2009) investigated experimentally the

strengthening of RC structural members in flexure with CFRP rods using the
NSM technique. The experimental study consisted of seven strengthened
specimen in addition to one unstrengthened specimen aiming at investigating
the effect of NSM bar strengthening lengths, concrete compressive strength,
NSM bar diameter, and bonding filler materials (epoxy resin or mortar) on the
performance of the strengthened RC beams. They concluded that the use of
NSM reinforcement had significantly improved the flexural performance of
the RC beams by increasing their ultimate moment capacities and limiting the
midspan deflection at failure.

Bournas and Triantafillou (2009) investigated the behaviour of RC

columns strengthened with near surface mounted reinforcements subjected to
lateral cyclic loading. The variables included were the type of NSM
reinforcements such as CFRP strips, GFRP bars and stainless steel bars,
arrangements and amount of NSM, type of adhesive, and NSM reinforcement
with and without jacketing. The observation was made on the responses such
as peak force, drift ratios, energy dissipation, and stiffness under loading.
They concluded that NSM CFRP strips had been effective even in low
concrete cover situation and both GFRP and CFRP strips of equal axial
strength provided equal strength, and the deformation capacity of CFRP was
slightly greater than GFRP. They also found that the local jacketing had
 22

prevented the buckling of NSM reinforcement and hence, permitted it to reach

the higher strains at failure.

Ceroni (2010) recently studied the flexural performance of beams

strengthened with externally bonded CFRP laminates and NSM CFRP bars.
The results of both the strengthening methods consisting of equivalent
percentage of reinforcement were compared, and was concluded that the
beams strengthened with NSM had shown enhancement in failure load and
ductility compared to EBR reinforcement. It was also reported that the failure
mode in NSM beam was owing to concrete crushing in compression
accompanied with concrete cover separation. It was observed that the ductility
could be improved by providing anchorage which delayed or even avoided
the debonding in EBR system.

Recently, the research work made on NSM GFRP strengthened

beam versus EBR was conducted by Rankovic et al (2010). Both NSM GFRP
and EBR strengthened beams were subjected to two point loading to observe
the deflection and crack width. The results showed that NSM beams had
performed well compared to EBR beams.

Vasudevan et al (2010) studied the influence of externally

reinforced bars on flexural retrofitting at tension side of RC beams by two
methods. In the first method they fixed the straight bars at the bottom of the
beam which led to initial slackness and to avoid this, in the second method
they used welded lapped bars. From the experimental results it was observed
that the retrofitted beams in the first method with 0.90% embedded and 0.60%
external reinforcement had exhibited a failure moment, which was 80% more
than that of the reference beams. Using the second method it was concluded
that the external reinforcement enhanced not only the moment carrying
capacity of beams but also controlled the deflections and crack width with
more ductility.
 23

A resent research on bonding between concrete and FRP as EBR

and NSM strips was carried out by Kotynia (2012). The variables considered
by him to investigate the bond were beam’s span and depth, longitudinal steel
reinforcement, type of the CFRP strips/sheets, CFRP bond length, and
compressive concrete strength. All the beams were cast into two separate
concrete blocks with the continuous longitudinal steel reinforcement in the
tension zone, and with a steel hinge located at the mid-span in compression
zone and subjected the beams to four point loading. He concluded that EBR
beams with wet layup sheets had shown greater bond strain than prefabricated
strips. He also reported that the delay in debonding was owing to greater bond
strain, when the bond length was located in the flexure zone than in the
flexure-shear zone.

Sena-curz et al (2012) investigated the effectiveness of various

strengthening techniques such as EBR and NSM CFRP unidirectional and
multi directional laminates on flexural behaviour of beams subjected to
monotonic and fatigue loading. They also introduced a new strengthening
technique called Mechanically Fastened EBR which combined the prestressed
fasteners from the MF-FRP technique and the epoxy bond-based performance
from the EBR technique.

2.4 BEAMS INTERNALLY REINFORCED WITH GLASS

FIBRE REINFORCED POLYMER BAR

Nanni (1993) discussed the flexural design of FRP reinforced

concrete members by ultimate strength and working stress method. The
tensile and bond properties of FRP reinforcement were also discussed. He
also presented the moment-curvature relationship for rectangular cross
section. He concluded that the FRP could be efficient in prestressed concrete
construction because of its low modulus and high strength property. He
observed that the working stress method was more suitable for FRP
 24

reinforced concrete design because FRP behaved in a linear-elastic manner up

to failure and the moment capacity was based on the concrete strain and bond.

Benmokrane et al (1996) examined the flexural performance of

beams reinforced with FRP bars. The bond between the concrete and the
smooth surface of GFRP bar was improved by winding helically the bar with
continuous fibre and coated with sand using thermosetting resin. They
checked the experimental results with theoretical formula from ACI code for
deflection, cracking, ultimate moment, and cracked effective moment of
inertia.

Chaallal and Benmokrane (1996) conducted laboratory tests to

identify the elastic, physical, and mechanical characteristics of GFRP rebar.
They assessed the performance of bond from pull out and beam test as well as
flexural performance of twenty beams. The results indicated that the
experimental ultimate moment variation was only 17% with respect to
predicted ultimate moment calculated using code formula. It was reported that
increased depth of GFRP reinforced beam was advantageous for controlling
the deflection and maximum utilization of FRP rebar.

Almusallam (1997) proposed an analytical model to predict the

flexural behaviour and deformation of FRP reinforced concrete beams.
Totally, nine beams with steel and GFRP as reinforcement were subjected to
testing to identify the response under moment-curvature variation, load-
deflection, and load-strain in the reinforcement. He concluded that the
experimental deflection of GFRP beams had shown good agreement with
predicted value but the predicted strain value was inconsistent with
experiment. He also suggested that FRP reinforced high strength concrete was
efficient in utilizing the tensile strength of FRP.
 25

Benmokrane et al (1997) examined the effect of reinforcement ratio

on cracking, deflection, ultimate capacities, and modes of failure of concrete
members reinforced with FRP bars. Experiments were carried out on 8 beams
reinforced with steel and FRP C-bar reinforcements. They reported that the
maximum observed crack-width in beams reinforced with FRP C-bar rods
was three to five times that of steel reinforced beams. They concluded that the
ultimate moment capacity increased with the increase in reinforcement ratio
but this increase was limited by the concrete compressive failure strain for the
C-bar reinforced concrete beams.

Ehsani et al (1997) investigated the bond behaviour of deformed

GFRP rebar by conducting tests on 48 beam specimens and 18 pull out
specimens reinforced with three different sizes of GFRP rebar subjected to
static tensile load. The variables for both beam and pull out specimens were
concrete compressive strength, embedment length, rebar size, clear cover, and
concrete depth below rebar. It was concluded that the beam results were more
realistic and accurate and could be used for the calculation of development
length. They also reported that the ultimate bond stress increased with higher
grade of concrete and clear concrete cover and decreased with higher concrete
cast depth.

Alsayed (1998) developed a computer model to predict the

performance of the constituents of steel or GFRP reinforced concrete beams.
The model predictions were checked with experimental results of 12 beams
containing three steel RC beams as control specimens and the remaining
beams reinforced with GFRP bars. It was concluded that the ACI model for
steel had underestimated the actual deflection of GFRP RC beams but the
proposed computer model predicted cracking and load deflection with an
error less than 20% and 10% respectively.
 26

Aiello and Ombres (2000) predicted crack width and crack spacing
in FRP reinforced concrete beams by nonlinear calculation based on slip and
bond stress. It was concluded that the width of cracks had been influenced by
bond strength, reinforcement ratio, and concrete cover thickness. It was
reported that increase in bond strength and reinforcement ratio had decreased
the width of crack, whereas increase in cover thickness increased the crack
width.

Razaqpur et al (2000) presented a rational and simple method to

predict the deflection of FRP reinforced concrete beams by integrating the
moment-curvature relation, based on the assumption that the moment-
curvature of a cracked FRP reinforced beam is linear under increasing load.
They concluded that in FRP beams the change in position of neutral axis
under service loads after cracking was negligible.

Toutanji and Saafi (2000) introduced a method for predicting

deflection and crack width of GFRP reinforced concrete beams. In the
effective moment of inertia calculation, they considered reinforcement ratio
and elastic modulus of FRP. In addition, the deflection was predicted using an
equation developed by considering the flexural stiffness of GFRP. The
predicted deflection verified with experimental work conducted on six
concrete beams reinforced with different reinforcement ratios had shown
satisfactory results. They also predicted the crack width by modifying the
coefficient kg which was applicable for conventional reinforced concrete.

Creazza and Russo (2001) proposed a model to calculate the

average crack width by considering the percentage of reinforcement and
concrete strength of RC members using non metallic reinforcement bars.
From the developed model they assessed the influence of elastic modulus on
crack width and validated the results with experimental results available in the
literature. It was concluded that the crack width had been controlled not only
 27

by bond and level of tension in the reinforcement but also by the percentage
of reinforcement.

Abdalla (2002) conducted an experiment on 15 GFRP and CFRP

reinforced concrete beams to study the deflection behaviour of beams.
Comparisons between experimental results and modified ACI formula to
account for low modulus of elasticity of FRP, nature of crack pattern, and
crack development were made. Further, the proposed model was substantiated
with other models presented in the literature. It was concluded that
experimental results had good agreement with estimated deflection from the
proposed model but not with the ACI guidelines.

El-Salakawy et al (2002) conducted experiments on 14 full scale

concrete beams reinforced with CFRP bars with different surface textures,
sand-coated, and the ribbed-deformed bar. The type of CFRP bar and
reinforcement ratio were considered as test parameters and the beam was
subjected to four point loading. They validated the available design guidelines
by comparing the test results and reported that ACI 440.1R-01 model had
underestimated the experimental values of deflection at lower load levels.
They concluded that the deflection at service load limit had decreased with
increase in reinforcement ratio.

Li and Wang (2002) presented the experimental and theoretical

predictions on flexural and shear behaviour of GFRP reinforced Engineered
Cementitious Composite (ECC) beams and High Strength Concrete (HSC)
beams. They reported that ECC is an alternative to brittle concrete matrix by
exhibiting higher tensile and shear ductility which was designed based on
micromechanic principles. The experimental results showed that ECC beams
resulted in increasing flexural performance in terms of ductility, load carrying
capacity, shear resistance, and crack width compared to HSC beams. The
results revealed that ECC beams without steel stirrups performed better in
 28

shear than HSC beams with dense steel stirrups. They reported that the strain
hardening and multiple cracking behaviours of ECC had led to formation of
smaller cracks instead of large opening cracks.

Yost et al (2003) examined the effect of concrete strength,

reinforcement density, and shear span-depth ratio on effective moment of
inertia calculation. Experimental investigation was made on forty eight simply
supported GFRP reinforced concrete beams and the measured deflection was
checked with ACI 440 model. It was concluded that ACI model had
overestimated the effective moment of inertia and hence, the modifications
were done for bond coefficient factor b in the ACI model.

Studies were carried out by Salib and Abdel Sayed (2004) on the
prediction of crack width for FRP reinforced concrete beams taking into
account the bond and mechanical properties of FRP bars. They proposed a
new formula to calculate crack width by introducing two coefficients k1 and
k2 to incorporate the bond and strain distribution over the cross section of the
beam. They observed that comparable results had been obtained from
theoretical - experimental crack width.

El-Ragaby et al (2005) verified the Finite Element model of three

bridges by conducting field test to know the service performance on three
different bridges located in North America. Since bridges are subjected to
harsh environmental conditions such as, large fluctuation in temperature, wet-
dry, and sever freeze-thaw cycles with heavy salt applications, the deck slabs
were reinforced with CFRP and GFRP rebars.

Wang et al (2005) evaluated the performance enhancement of

discrete Polypropylene (PP) fibre reinforced concrete beams internally
reinforced with CFRP and GFRP rebar. The discussion was made on the
effect of fibres on crack width, moment deflection curvature, and load
 29

deflection response. They predicted the crack width using available models
and checked with experimental results. They also discussed the ductility index
calculated by energy and deformation based approach and concluded that
addition of PP fibre had increased the ductility index by 40%.

Ashour (2006) presented an experimental test report on concrete

beams reinforced with GFRP. The flexural and shear capacities of
12 beams reinforced only in tension side without stirrups and compression
reinforcement were subjected to four point loading. The concrete compressive
strength, amount of GFRP reinforcement, and depth of beam were the
variables considered in this study. During the testing, two different failures
namely flexural in the constant moment region and shear failure in the shear
span in the form of diagonal tension crack extended into horizontal crack at
the GFRP reinforcement level were noticed. He also developed equations to
predict the flexural capacity to validate experimental values and referred to
four different methods from literature on shear which was not consistent with
tested results.

Biscoff (2007) calculated the deflection of FRP reinforced concrete

beams by modifying the Branson’s equation developed for steel reinforced
concrete. The effective moment of inertia calculation from Branson’s
equation underestimated the deflection of FRP reinforced concrete beams. He
proposed an expression for effective moment of inertia by considering tension
stiffening concept which holds good for both steel and FRP reinforced beams.
He developed two more equations which are the modified form of Branson’s
equation using a correction factor d which reduces tension stiffening to a
sensible level by decreasing the ratio of gross moment of inertia to cracked
moment of inertia.

Ospina and Bakis (2007) proposed a new model for the controlling
of flexural cracks by specifying maximum permissible spacing of FRP
reinforcing bar in concrete beams. The proposed crack control equation was
 30

suitable for both steel reinforced concrete beams and FRP reinforced concrete
beams. They concluded that no drastic deviation had been observed in the
proposed model from ACI 440.1R-06; instead rearrangement of ACI equation
in terms of FRP reinforcement spacing eliminated the impracticalities present
in the direct measurement of crack width during experiments.

Ramaswamy et al (2007) investigated the strength and

serviceability performance of GFRP beams. The concrete beams made of two
different grades of concrete reinforced with GFRP rebar were subjected to
two point loading to obtain the ultimate strength, deflection, and crack width.
They proposed an empirical model for predicting the maximum crack width
and deflection and compared it with the experimental values. They concluded
that the grade of concrete was not an influencing factor for ultimate strength
because the failure of rebar was owing to the slip between concrete and rebar.

Rafi et al (2007) conducted an experimental investigation on CFRP

reinforced concrete beams. They discussed and checked the bond
characteristics of FRP beams, modes of failure, and deflection of tested
results with ACI code formulation. The results indicated that the CFRP bars
had developed better bond strength than steel RC beams and the failure of
FRP beams was owing to concrete crushing. They reported that ACI formula
had underestimated the theoretical deflection.

The bond behaviour and bond strength of nonmetallic reinforcing

bar in concrete beams was studied by Mosley et al (2008). Experiments were
done on three series of beams reinforced with steel, GFRP and AFRP. The
test results were checked against ACI 318 and ACI 440. It was reported that
the surface texture of FRP had no significant influence on bond strength but it
was related to modulus of elasticity of material. It was observed in the test
 31

that the bond strength of FRP was lower compared to steel because of the low
modulus of elasticity of FRP.

Tavares et al (2008) assessed the flexural behaviour of GFRP

reinforced concrete beams by comparing strength, reinforcement deformation,
displacement, and anchorage with steel RC beams. They reported that the
flexural behaviour had been highly influenced by low modulus of GFRP bar
and high GFRP rupture strain. They reported that controlling the
reinforcement stiffness and maximum internal tension force had led to a good
achievement of flexural capacity in GFRP reinforced beams.

Barris et al (2009) evaluated the short-term flexural behaviour by

conducting experiments on GFRP reinforced beams and compared with code
predictions. They also proposed alternative methods for the prediction of
flexural behaviour and simplified methodologies for design of FRP beams and
concluded that at service load the flexural deflection predictions provided by
ACI 440.1R- 06 and Eurocode had been in close agreement with the
experimental results but at higher load levels these underestimated the
deflections owing to the non-linearities that took place at these load levels. It
was reported that the reinforcement ratio and effective depth-to-height ratio
had influenced the effective stiffness of the beam specimens, and therefore
their load-deflection behaviour.

Razzaq et al (2009) presented the experimental results of GFRP and

steel reinforced concrete slabs subjected to concentrated central static load.
The test results were checked with the values of yield line analysis and it was
observed that the performance of FRP reinforced slabs had been better than
steel reinforced slab. They also solved a few practical problems of GFRP
reinforced slabs subjected to uniformly distributed load based on yield line
theory.
 32

Shin et al (2009) studied the effect of GFRP reinforced beams with

different reinforcement ratio and concrete strength by subjecting twelve
beams under static loading upto failure. The variables investigated in the
experiment were crack pattern, crack width, strains, deflections, and modes of
failure. It was concluded that the stiffness of GFRP beams got reduced after
the first crack. In addition the deflection and strain were large in GFRP beams
than in steel beams. They reported that the increase in concrete strength and
reinforcement ratio had increased the flexural capacity of tested beams but
crack width was independent of concrete strength whereas it decreased with
increase in reinforcement ratio.

Chitsazan et al (2010) investigated flexural behaviour of beams

reinforced with GFRP bars and analyzed the different kinds of failure,
ultimate moment capacity, deflection, load at first crack, tensile, and
compressive strains created on beam and position of neutral axis during
loading for different reinforcement ratios. They also examined the influence
of high strength concrete and increase in the effective depth over the breadth
on flexural behaviour of GFRP concrete beams. They concluded that the use
of high strength concrete had increased the load of the first crack
significantly.

Issa et al (2011) recently evaluated the flexural performance of six

cantilever GFRP reinforced beams by considering the following parameters;
type of reinforcement, ratios of reinforcement, and strength of concrete. The
result showed that the theoretical flexural capacity was 30% lower than the
experimental value. They also calculated the deflections using the model of
Brown and Bartholomew for effective moment of inertia and concluded that
the predicted deflection had made good agreement with the tested results.
 33

2.5 NEED FOR THE PRESENT STUDY

From the foregoing discussions, it is obvious that only limited

studies have been carried out in open fabric AR Glass and Kevlar as
strengthening materials. The existing data to examine the choice of bonding
agent between the fabric and concrete surface are inadequate. Only few
literature is available on NSM strengthening method for different
reinforcement ratios and comparison of externally reinforced fabric with
NSM AFRP bars. The investigation on GFRP reinforced beams with different
grades of concrete and tension reinforcement is not available.

Therefore, it is worth having a deep understanding through

laboratory works on beams strengthened with AR Glass fabric and Kevlar
fabric with Epoxy and Polymer modified mortar as adhesives. The
effectiveness of strengthening method was studied by comparing EBR
specimens with NSM specimens. The flexural behaviour of beams internally
reinforced with GFRP bar was understood by conducting experiments on
beams with different tension reinforcement ratios and grades of concrete.