Material Characterization of GFRP Bars in Compression using a New Test Method

Abstract

This paper presents a new test method for determining the mechanical properties of glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) composite bars in compression, namely the compressive strength, compressive modulus of elasticity, ultimate crushing strain, and compressive stress-strain curves of the bars. The contribution of GFRP bars in compression is currently neglected by major design guidelines related to GFRP-reinforced concrete columns. However, the demand for using GFRP bars is increasing since multiple researchers have shown the effectiveness of the bars in concrete columns. Thus, the need for characterization of the mechanical properties of GFRP bars is increasing, while there is no standardized test method to evaluate the compressive properties of these bars. Therefore, in this paper, a new test method is proposed for evaluating the compressive characteristics of GFRP bars. The proposed test method was examined through testing a total of 35 specimens. It was observed that the test method was able to evaluate the compressive characteristics of the GFRP bars successfully. Three different modes of compressive failure were observed which were related to the crushing of GFRP bars in different locations in the bar, but no premature failure or bar buckling was observed. Moreover, a comparison between tensile and compression characteristics of the GFRP bars showed that the tensile test results is not sufficient to estimate the compressive characteristics and performing compression test is necessary.