Experimental Study on the Performance of Fibre Reinforced Polymer Pretensioned Concrete Beams

The use of FRP tendons as an alternative to conventional steel strands in prestressed concrete structures is very limited. There are many aspects that are still not clear enough to establish the basis of design of FRP prestressed concrete structures. To contribute to increase the current knowledge about the performance of this type of structures, an experimental campaign of tests on precast FRP pre-tensioned simply supported beams, without stirrups, is currently under development. The main purpose of this program was to study their performance at service and ultimate load levels. The experimental program includes 15 beams tested under flexure and shear, using steel, CFRP (carbon), GFRP (glass) rebars as active reinforcement, with different levels of prestressing force. Eight out of the fifteen beams have been tested in a 3-point bending configuration and failed unexpectedly in shear at an applied load lower than that predicted. The remaining seven beams have been tested in shear by applying a point load twice at both beam ends. This paper summarizes the preliminary results obtained in this program.