Experimental tests of two span continuous concrete beams reinforced with hybrid GFRP-Steel bars

The current paper aimed at investigating the flexural performance of five large-scale continuous concrete beams reinforced by both steel bars and glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP). All the studied specimens had the same geometrical dimensions, with 200 mm width, 300 mm depth, and two identical spans of 2600 mm. The quantity of longitudinal steel reinforcement, GFRP reinforcement, and hybrid reinforcement ratio at the top and bottom layers of beams were the key parameters explored in this study. The experimental findings indicated that using the hybrid reinforcement of steel and GFRP in multi-span continuous concrete beams exhibited a ductile behaviour. However, the hybrid ratio of steel bars/GFRP is critical for restricting the extent of moment redistribution ratios. Moreover, using the same hybrid reinforcement ratios at sagging and hogging regions led to a limited moment redistribution. On the other hand, the hybrid beams strengthened by various hybrid ratios in the critical sections of the tested beams demonstrated a remarkable moment redistribution up to 43 %. The test results were compared with the available theoretical model and equations for predicting the beams’ moment capacity. It was found that the ACI.440.2R-08 reasonably predicted the flexural capacity of tested beams whereas the Yinghao and Yong equation underestimated the flexural capacity in the hogging sections. It was also shown that using the collapse mechanism with plastic hinges at sagging and hogging sections yielded good predictions for the loading capacity of hybrid reinforced concrete continuous beams.