FRPRCS-9 Sydney, Australia

Monday 13 Wednesday 15 July 2009

THERM AL EFFECTS ON BOND PROPERTIES OF GFRP REBARS

EMBEDDED IN CONCRETE: EXPERIMENTAL STUDY AND
ANALY TICAL INTERPRETATION
Radhouane MASMOUDI1 , Abdelmonem MASMOUDI2,3 , Mongi BEN OUEZDOU 2 , Atef DAOUD
1
2
3
4

2,4

Department of civil engineering, Faculty of Engineering - Sherbrooke University, Canada.

Civil Engineering Laboratory, LGC ENIT, University of Tunis Manar , Tunisia
Department of civil engineering, ISET Sf ax University, Tunisia
Department of civil engineering, ENIG, University of Gabes, Tunisia

Keywords: ageing, bond behaviour, concrete, Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP), pullout tests.

INTRODUCTION

Steel has been us ed as the primary reinforcing m aterial in concrete f or decades. In certain
situations, however, the material properties of steel rebar do not meet the structural efficiency
requirements. GFRP bars can be an attractive alternative in these c ases. They hav e higher tensile
strength, and they are corrosion-resistant, non-magnetic and much lighter than st eel. The thermal
properties of GFRP bars do have significant effects on their bond properties when embedded in
concrete and these effects need to be evaluated. The mechanical properties (especi ally the strength
and the stiffness) of polymers are known to decrease significantly as the temperature increases,
particularly when it approaches the glass transition temperature of the polymer [1]. At temperature of
20 C, the average bond strengths are increased for the FRP bars when compared t o the reference
results at 20C temperature [2]. An other ex perimental investigation of FRP bar subjected to thermal
cycles showed a significant degradation induced by exposure to relatively high temperatures [ 3]. The
overall long-t erm durability of the materials under s evere environmental conditions has not been
systematically evaluated. This is the major focus of the present paper.
The thermal treatment, pullout tests were subjected during 4 months. The t h er m al effect on the
average term bond strengths and concrete were then compared to untreated specimens (20C).

EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

2.1

Test program:
The m ain objective of the test program is to evaluate under high temperatures in dry environment
the performance of the bond strength of FRP bars embedded in concrete. Specimens were submitted
to high temperatures of 40, 60 and 80 C for 4 months in a controlled environmental room as shown in
Figure1. A total number of 40 specimens were tested. Five ident ical specimens for each diameter and
each temperature level were prepared and tested.
2.2

Pullout test:
Pullout bond testing were performed on specimens which consist on a 500 mm long GFRP bar
embedded vertically in 150 x 150 x 150 mm and 180 x 180 mm x 180 mm) concrete cube for bar
diameter of 8 and 16 m m, respectively .This dif ference in concrete cube dimensions is intended to
avoid the failure mode of concrete splitting. The embedment length for all specimens is 5 db, where db
is the GFRP-bar diameter. The desired em bedment length is obtained us ing PVC pipes that were
placed around the bars and sealed with silicon to avoid the contact of the concrete in this area. All
specimens were prepared following the specifications of ACI Guide Test Methods [ 4].
The pullout tests were carried out using a calibrated LLoyed 50 KN testing machine with a
displacement -rate c o ntrol. The displacement rate of loading was constant during the tests (1. 2
mm/min). Four LVDTs, with accuracy equal to 0.001mm, were used for the GFRP bar to monitor the
displacements. Three LVDTs were placed at 120 degree segment orientation at the loaded end , and
one LVDT at the free end (Fig. 2).

FRPRCS-9 Sydney, Australia

Monday 13 W ednesday 15 July 2009

Anchorage
Upper Moving Head
3 LVD Ts
GFRP Rebar

80C
60C
40C

PVC Pipe
Bonded
Region

1
Lower Stationary

Fig. 1 Specimens submitted to accelerated ageing

Fig. 2 Schematic of the pullout test

2.3 Results:
2.3.1 Pullout load versus slip curve:
Measurements obtained during the tests are plotted in the form of load-slip curves. The pullout
versus end-slip curves contained mainly two phases as shown in Figure 3. In the ascending phase,
the load increases rapidly with small slip until it reaches the maximum load. In t he descending phase,
the load decreases gradually with significant slip increase.The maximum bond stress for GFRP bars
was recorded at slips of the free end of 0.6mm and 0.43 mm, respectively for 20C and 80C
temperatures.
For all GF RP bars, the failure mode is shearing off the concrete corbels.

50

20C
40C
60C
80C

GFRP 16 mm Dry environment

40

Load (KN)

30
20
10
0
0

Fig. 3

Slip (mm) 5

Load versus bar end slip behaviour

2.3.2 Bond strength:

The average max bond stress was calculated following expression:

(s)

Fmax
.d b .L e.b

(1)

Where Fmax is the Peak recorded bar load (N) during the pullout test, db is the nominal bar diameter
(mm), and Leb is the embedment length of GFRP bar (mm).
Table 1 recapitulates the average bond strength values for each diameter and for each temperature.

FRPRCS-9 Sydney, Australia

Monday 13 Wednesday 15 July 2009

Table 1

Specimens and summary of test results.

Average bond* (MPa)
Temperature
16 mm ( GFRP)
8 mm (GFRP)
20 C
11.010.25
14.37 0.40
40 C
10.87 0.36
14.27 1.04
60 C
10.64 0.15
14.11 0.75
80C
9.50 0.27
13.02 0.22
* Based on five identical tests

Loss in Bond Strength (MPa)

Dry environment

GFRP 8 mm
GFRP 16 mm

100
95
90
85
80
75
Reference
20C

40C

60C

80C
Temperature C

Fig. 4 Thermal degradation of bond strength in dry environment af ter 120 days of ageing
Figure 4 shows the t hermal degradation of bond stren gth in dry environment after 120 days of ageing
For temperature s up to 60C, the loss in the av erage maximum bond strengths is not significant (3. 4
% and 1.8 % respectively for the 16 mm and 8mm). However, for the 80C temperature the reductions
in maximum bond strength after 4 months of thermal loading in dry environment, are 13.7 % and 9.4
%, for the 16 mm and 8mm GFRP bars, respectively, when compared to the reference results at 20C.

ANALYTICAL APPROACH

The local bondslip laws of the considered bars after thermal treatment have been determined via the
Cosenza, Manfredi Realfonzo, (CMR model ) [5] whic h given by:

( s ) max(1 e

s
Sr

(2)
Where; Sr and are parameters based on curve-fitting of the experimental data, max is the peak bond
strength. The curve-fitting parameter m ust not be larger than 1 to be physically meaningful (exp:
=0.4 for steel bars and =0.447 for Isorod bars). Parameters Sr and (curve fitting) were calibrated
f or each diameter of bar and temperature. A comparison of the ascending branch obtained from the
analytical curves with the CMR model and the experimental results submitted to different temperatures
are reported in Fi gures 5a and 5b. The ascending branch is the most important branch because t his
branch gives the bond strength- slip of the bar below the ultimate load. All the structures are designed
to work below this load level. The coefficient depend on temperature T as observed in Figure 5c.
The third degree polynomial equations =f (T) for each diameter predict this dependence on
temperature Eq.(3) and Eq.(4) :
3
Diameter 8 mm : = -0,0002T + 0,005T - 0, 0088 T + 0,462
(3)
3
Diameter 16 mm : = 0,0005T + 0,008 T - 0,0185 T + 0,426
(4)
Table 2 Mean values of Parameters and Sr in CMR model for each temperature and diameter of
GF R P bars
GF R P 16 mm
GFRP 8 mm
20C
40C
60C
80C
20C
40C
60C
80C
C MR
Model

0.416
0.425
0.456
0.512
0.458 0.463
0.476 0.496
Sr(mm)
0.155
0.172
0.149
0.105
0.134 0.191
0.185 0.187
3

FRPRCS-9 Sydney, Australia

Monday 13 Wednesday 15 July 2009

GFRP 16 mm

GFRP 8 mm

16

0,52
GFRP 8 mm

14

8
CMR model

20C
40C

60C
2

0,5

10

CMR model
6

20C

0,2

0,4

0,6

0,44

40C

60C

0,42

80C

0,48
0,46

80C

GFRP 16 mm

12

Bta

10

Bond strength (MPa)

Bond strength (MPa)

12

0,4

0
0

0,2

Slip (mm)

(a)
Fig. 5 (a),(b): Local bond-slip relationships

0,4

0,6

Slip (mm)

(b)

20

40

60
80
Temperature (C)

(c)

(c) Dependence of parameter beta on temperature

For all specimens, the ascending branch of the bond-slip law is well interpreted by the CMR model
v alid for 0 s sm . The experimental and analytical c u rves had a similar tendency. Experimental
results s how that the m ax imum value of the slip at the free end decreases when t emperature
increases.

CONCLUSIONS
This study allows the following conclusions:
For temperature up to 60C, the average bond strengths do not show a ny significant reduction,
For the 80C temperature, the maximum reductions after 4 months of thermal loading in dry
environment are 13.7 % and 9.4 %, for the 16 mm and 8mm GFRP bars respectively when
compared to the reference results at 20C,
For CMR model, the third degree polynomial equation =f (T) for each diameter predicts the
dependence of the parameter on temperature,
No significant damage was observed on the interface GFRP Rebars/concrete after 120 days of
thermal loading.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank the manufacturer of the GFRP Combar (Sc hck, Baden-Baden,
Germany ) for providing the GFRP bars, and Sika Tunisienne ( Sf ax, Tunisie) for sponsoring this
research. The opinion and analysis presented in this paper are those of the authors.

REFERENCES
[1]
[2]

[3]
[4]
[5]

Katz, A., Berman, N. and Bank, L.C., Effect of high temperature on bond strength of FRP
rebars. Journal of Composites for Construction, v 3, n 2,1999 ,pp 73-81.
Masmoudi, R. and Alvarez, A., Pullout Bond Behaviuor of FRP bars embedded in concrete
under different temperatures. Actes du c olloque SOMAPRO, Hammamet,Tunisia, 2007, pp
369-379.
Galati, N., Nanni, A., D h arani, L. R., Focacci, F. and Aiello, MA., Thermal effects on bond
between FRP rebars and concrete.J o urnal of Composites, Part A, 37,2006 , pp 30-36.
ACI 440.3R, Guide Test Methods for Fiber-Reinforced Polymers (FRPs) for Reinforcing or
Strengthening Concrete Structures,2004.
Cosenza, E., Manfredi, G. and R e alfonzo, R., Behaviour and modelling of bond of FRP rebars
to concrete.Journal of Composites for Construction v 1(2), 1997 , pp 5-40.
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