EXPERIMENTAL MODELLING AND ANALYSIS OF CONCRETE DEEP BEAMS USING HFRP REINFORCEMENTS WITH WEB OPENINGS

The use of non-corrosive reinforcements in the place of steel reinforcements has been seen as an alternative to improve the life span of the concrete structures. Fibre Reinforced Polymer (FRP) reinforcements offers many advantages over steel reinforcements including resistance to electrochemical corrosion, high strength to weight ratio, easy in fabrication and electromagnetic insulating properties. Further, the use of hybrid FRP reinforcements in lieu of conventional steel reinforcements require better understanding under different parametric conditions. Therefore, the present study deals mainly with the behavior of concrete deep beams with and without openings reinforced internally with hybrid type fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) reinforcements under static loading conditions. In this study, two grades of beams, normal and high strength concrete deep beams with and without web openings are investigated. Among the sixteen beams, eight beams are reinforced internally using conventional reinforcements with and without web openings. The remaining eight beams are reinforced internally using hybrid FRP reinforcements with and without web openings. Different parameters like normal strength concrete, high strength concrete, web opening positions (Top, Middle and Bottom), and span sprinkled FRP hybrid reinforcements are considered. Based on this study, static load carrying capacities and their modes of failures of deep beams, reinforced internally with FRP hybrid type reinforcements for various web openings. The positions were compared with the existing theories for better understanding. A good agreement exists between the analytical and experimental results. Final conclusions are arrived based on the experimental investigation.