The presentation gives a brief overview of fiber reinforced polymer its advantages, history of its usage in buildings and bridges and finally proposes a composite hybrid beam design of FRP and Concrete. A link is embedded in the last page of the slide that allows you download a excel sheet that calculates and compares the flexural performance of RC and proposed hybrid beam for user given input beam dimensions.
Comparing Flexural performance of FRP and RC beams
1. FRP Beam (VS) Reinforced
Concrete Beam
By Abdul Rameez
2. Acknowledgement
• The design and content of the
Hybrid beam used in this
presentation and the excel sheet
was adopted from the Final Thesis
Report "Design of A Fibre-
Reinforced Polymer (FRP) Bridge”
by B.Leo, University of New South
Wales at the Australian Defense
Force Academy.
By Abdul Rameez
3. What is FRP ?
• Fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) composite materials
are commonly used in the aerospace, marine and
defence industries. Due to their inherent
advantages, FRP composite materials are
increasingly making their way into civil engineering
applications.
• A material in which more than one constituent is
present can be described as a ‘composite’, e.g.,
reinforced concrete (steel/concrete) and timber
(cellulose fibre/lignin matrix)(Canning et. al, 2007).
Composite materials are those composed of synthetic
fibres and a polymer resin. These composite
materials are formed by embedding continuous fibres
in a resin matrix which binds the fibres together.
Common fibres include carbon, glass and aramid
fibres and common resin include epoxy, polyester and
vinyl ester resins (Teng et. al, 2003).
By Abdul Rameez
4. History FRP structures
• The world’s first all FRP composite vehicle bridge can be dated back
to 1982, when a single span two-lane bridge was constructed in
China. Glass-reinforced composite box girders of the Miyun Bridge
were made from the hand-lay process and this bridge was
constructed by 20 workers within two weeks, assisted by simple
machinery only (McCormick, 1993).
• The composites industry has grown approximately 460% over the
past 30 years, from 360 000 tons in 1970 to 1.68 million tons in
2000 (Alnahhal, Aref, 2008). FRP materials are widely used in
aerospace and maritime industries as those industries have
recognised that FRP materials have superior material properties
over conventional materials in their field of application. However, in
a predominantly conservative construction industry, particularly in
the case of bridge engineering, the high strength to weight ratio and
durability of FRP materials are two important advantages which FRP
materials have over conventional materials. (B.Leo, 2009).
• In 2015 a Netherlands based composite manufacturing company
called Fibre Core Europe won the Outstanding Paper Award 2015
from the International Association for Bridge and Structural
Engineering (IABSE, c/o ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland) for "Hybrid
Bridge Structure Composed of Fibre Reinforced Polymers and
Steel" which describes design and construction of the 142m span
hybrid steel/composite bridge across the A27 motorway near
Utrecht, the Netherlands. Comprised of seven prefabricated
InfraCore composite bridge deck segments joined and subsequently
coupled to a steel support truss to achieve a EuroCode traffic rating
of 60 metric tonnes (60,000 kg), the deck weighed only 140
kg/m2 compared to 220 kg/m2 for a steel deck, saving 72,000
kg. The pictures of the bridge are shown on right side.
By Abdul Rameez
5. Advantages of FRP
1. High strength to weight ratio
FRP materials display high strength-to-
weight and high stifness-to-weight ratios in
comparison wit most metals and alloys
(Karbhari & Zahao, 2000).
Advantages of designing structures using
light weight material
Reduces the self weight of the structure
Provides better seismic resistance
Enables easily handling and installation
By Abdul Rameez
6. 2. Durability
• The long-term durability of FRP materials is often stated as
the main reason for the use of these materials.
• In general, FRP materials do not corrode and have a better
chemical resistance to the environment. However, it must be
noted that the durability of these materials depends intrinsically
on the choice of constituent materials, methods of
manufacturing and fabrication, and the surrounding
environmental conditions during their service lives
• (Karbhari, 2003).
No corrosion
No rusting
No rotting
Resulting in low maintenance and Life cycle cost.
By Abdul Rameez
7. 3. Green Technology
• As a result of global warming, the
environmental impact of the built
environment and the carbon content of
construction materials has become a very
important issue.
• In general concrete which conventionally
used construction material produces high
amount of carbon di oxide.
• 1 tonne of Portland cement produces 1
tonne of CO2 andother green house gases.
Compared other construction materials
such as steel, aluminum, reinforced
concrete, FRP consumes only half the total
amount of energy. (B.Leo, 2009)
By Abdul Rameez
(B.Leo, 2009)
8. Why FRP Beams are best alternative for RC beams ?
Design of RC beams:
The cross-section of RC beams can be
divided into two zones compression zone
and tension zone. Concrete in the tensile
region i.e. tension zone is not considered
while designing an RC beam as concrete is
low tensile strength. Hence the concrete
below the neutral axis of the beam adds
unwanted dead load contributing 75-80%
of the self weight of the beam (B.Leo,
2009).
• In FRP Composite beam the concrete in
the tension zone is replaced with Glass
Fibre Reinforced pultruded section.
By Abdul Rameez
Ineffective concrete area
that contributes 75-80% of
self weight of the structure
(B.Leo, 2009)
9. Hybrid Beam Concept
By Abdul Rameez
Glass fibre
reinforced plastic
Carbon fibre
sheet
Replaced
with FRP
Section
(B.Leo, 2009)
11. Proposed Beam Design
Upto 75% Lighter than RC beam.
Has similar flexural stiffness and deflection values.
The link to the excel sheet given below enables you to compare the performance of RC and FRP
beam for same dimensional inputs. Comparison is made by providing max reinforcement area to
the RC beam which is 4% of its cross-sectional area.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dxMhyC0AGI6P7rq4yOZXiWMZIGMUYJhc/view?usp=sharing
Do try the sheet and find out how efficient FRP beams can be in real life
By Abdul Rameez
(B.Leo, 2009)
