Finite element parametric study of the shear behavior of GFRP-RC short beams

A parametric study to investigate the shear behavior of short concrete beams reinforced with glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars is presented in this paper. The parametric analysis is conducted numerically by developing a three-dimensional finite element model considering both geometric and material nonlinearities. The FE model is verified against existing experimental results [1] then extended to consider a wider range of parameters. The effect of longitudinal reinforcement ratio, the span-to-depth ratio and the beam's height on the shear strength of GFRP-RC beams are examined. The results showed that increasing the longitudinal reinforcement ratio increases the shear strength of short beams. However, the mid-span deflection is accordingly increases due to the lower axial rigidity of GFRP bars. Also, the increase in the beams' height led to an increase in the shear capacity of the beams.