Shear behavior of ultra-high-performance concrete beams prestressed with external carbon fiber-reinforced polymer tendons

The ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) and fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) are well-accepted high-performance materials in the field of civil engineering. The combination of these advanced materials could contribute to improvement of structural performance and corrosion resistance. Unfortunately, only limited studies are available for shear behavior of UHPC beams reinforced with FRP bars, and few suggestions exist for prediction methods for shear capacity. This paper presents an experimental investigation on the shear behavior of UHPC beams reinforced with glass FRP (GFRP) and prestressed with external carbon FRP (CFRP) tendons. The failure mode of all specimens with various shear span to depth ratios from 1.7 to 4.5 was diagonal tension failure. The shear span to depth ratio had a significant influence on the shear capacity, and the effective prestressing stress affected the crack propagation. The experimental results were then applied to evaluate the equations given in different codes/recommendations for FRP-reinforced concrete structures or UHPC structures. The comparison results indicate that NF P 18-710 and JSCE CES82 could appropriately estimate shear capacity of the slender specimens with a shear span to depth ratio of 4.5. Further, a new shear design equation was proposed to take into account the effect of the shear span to depth ratio and the steel fiber content on shear capacity.