E3S Web of Conferences 391, 01210 (2023) https://doi.org/10.

1051/e3sconf/202339101210
ICMED-ICMPC 2023

Numerical analysis on reinforcement ratio of RC

beams using FRP and steel rebars
K Hemalatha1*, D Ravi Prasad1
1EngineeringStructures Division, Civil Engineering Department, National Institute of Technology
Warangal, Telangana

Abstract. Reinforced Concrete Structures, traditionally using steel rebars,

are vulnerable to corrosion under severe exposure conditions. This can result
in several drawbacks such as concrete deterioration, reduced serviceability,
increased maintenance costs, and reduced structural durability. To counter
these issues, Fibre Reinforced Polymer bars have emerged as another
possibility material for steel bars. FRP bars are anti-corrosive, have high
tensile strength, weigh one-fourth of steel bars, and have a low thermal
expansion coefficient similar to concrete. To enhance both load-carrying
capacity and ductility, a combining steel bars and FRP bars has been
effectively used because FRP bars are having brittle behaviour. This paper
studies theoretical investigations of Reinforcement ratio when Fiber
Reinforced Polymer bars and steel bars are used as reinforcement in
Concrete beams with Af to As as 1 which balance both Flexural capacity and
ductility.

Keywords. - FRP – Fiber Reinforced Polymer bar, Af :- Area of Fibre

reinforced polymer bar, As :- Area of steel bar

1 Introduction
Many concrete structures reinforced with steel become inferior due to corrosion which leads
to the huge increase in maintenance cost, reduction in the life span of the structure, bad
appearance and service capacity of the structure decreases. Many research works conducted
to counteract this problem. Numerous alternative approaches were proposed like Epoxy
coated steel reinforcement is the popular method which prevent steel from corrosion. But it
also has the disadvantages. Presence of epoxy coat make the poor bonding between concrete
and reinforcement and the cost of the reinforcement increases by approximately 10%. Hence
alternative methods are proposed to replace the steel reinforcement with suitable alternative
material. Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) rebars are the one such material which are made
up of fibers reinforced with polymer resin has high resistance to corrosion. These fibers have
the advantages of high tensile strength, low specific gravity, magnetic free nature, high
temperature resistance, low maintenance and high durable. Hence the concrete structures
reinforced with FRP rebars can last for longer duration. Apart from the above advantages

* Corresponding author: [email protected]

© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution License 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
E3S Web of Conferences 391, 01210 (2023) https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202339101210
ICMED-ICMPC 2023

mentioned, FRP bars shows a linear elastic behavior till the failure which make the concrete
in brittle failure. To improve the strength, ductile performance of Reinforced Concrete made
with FRP bars, many researches have investigated to improve the flexural
performance.(1)experimentally investigated that Hybrid reinforcements had two times more
strength when compared with conventional beams and also deflections of both types of
matrix are same. (2)performed flexural studies and durability of concrete beams made using
steel and FRP bars, results exhibited that ultimate moment was 95% of conventional
beams.(3) performed under same load, deflection, crack spacing, ductility of pure FRP beams
using BFRP bars is more and for conventional beams are less and values of hybrid
reinforcement is in between.(4)presented that the maximum flexure load of Hybrid RC
beams(G+S) is 98% of conventional.(5)proposed that Arrangement of FRP at corners and
Steel in middle gave better results in ultimate strength, crack width and strain.(6) studied that
crack width in Hybrid reinforcement using GFRP and steel bars reduced 50% when compared
to pure FRP reinforced concrete beams.(7)carried out reducing the value of Af/As ratio,
ductility can reach limiting service conditions. (8)explored from his work that Hybrid
reinforcement control first cracking by 50% when compare to concrete beams with pure FRP
bars and a relative slip of 25% is observed in GFRP and concrete when compared to steel
and concrete. The results shows that Area of fibre to steel ratio has to be maintained in 1:1
which allows maximum allowable load in service.(9)studies performance of RC beams
various ratios of Hybrid Reinforcement, concluded that stiffness of Hybrid Reinforcement in
beams using constant usage of GFRP, increase in amount of steel is more when compared
with fixed amount of steel and increase in amount of GFRP. (6) proposed theoretical
investigations for designing flexure using Hybrid reinforcement. (6)experimentally proposed
that less amount of GFRP is necessary to prevent from FRP bar rupture and also presented
two balanced reinforcement ratios to achieve Steel yielding and Concrete Crushing Failure.
(10) in his research studied finally figured that Af/As must lies between 1.0 to 2.5 to meet the
requirements of both flexural capacity and ductility.(11) studied that distributed
reinforcement deflection is smaller than reinforcement which is bundled. Bui et al., validated
that FRP is responsible for ultimate capacity and steel reinforcement is responsible for
Ductility.

1.1 Research significance

In this paper authors have attempted to examine the studies on Reinforcement ratio when part
of Steel reinforcement is replaced with Fibre Reinforced Polymer bars which maintains the
ratio of Fibre area to Steel such that it balances both ductility and load capacity in equal
proportions.

2 Theoretical Investigation of Reinforcement Ratio

In this investigation, the part of FRP bars in pure FRP-RC beams are replaced with steel bars
by maintaining area ratios of Af/As as 1. Practically, the total reinforcement ratio(ρ) is sum
of ρs and ρf but the dissimilarity in mechanical properties like Elastic modulus and tensile
strength connecting Fibre and Steel is required to evaluate nominal reinforcement ratio(ρ n).
Hence ρn,E and ρn,F are suggested.

2
E3S Web of Conferences 391, 01210 (2023) https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202339101210
ICMED-ICMPC 2023

Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Fig. 3 Fig. 4

Stress and Strain distribution in limit state
Fig. 1) RC beam made with steel and FRP bar in one layer Cross section
Fig. 2) Forces in equilibrium
Fig. 3) SY and CC failure condition
Fig. 4) FR and CC failure condition
Nominal Reinforcement ratio in terms of Elastic Modulus(ρ nom,E)

𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸∗𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴+𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸∗𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴 𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸
ρn,E = = 𝜌𝜌𝜌𝜌 + ρf (1) or
𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸∗𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏 𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸
𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸∗𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴+𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸∗𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴 𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸
ρn,E= = 𝜌𝜌𝜌𝜌 + 𝜌𝜌𝜌𝜌 (2)
𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸 𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸

Nominal Reinforcement ratio in terms of Tensile Strength(ρnom,F)

𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓∗𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴+𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓∗𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴 𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓
ρn,F = =𝜌𝜌𝜌𝜌 + 𝜌𝜌𝜌𝜌 (3) or
𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓∗𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏 𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓

𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓∗𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴+𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓∗𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴 𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓
ρn,F= =𝜌𝜌𝜌𝜌 + 𝜌𝜌𝜌𝜌 (4)
𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓∗𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏 𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓

For RC beams using only steel bars in flexure, the failure modes examined on the basis of
limit state that CC and SY happens at the same time in the case of balanced reinforced
condition. Similarly for RC beams using only FRP bars, CC and FR should happen at the
same time to maintain balanced reinforcement ratio. But for Hybrid Reinforcement,
reinforcement ratio in balanced state shall be achieved from the following two cases as
mentioned below.
Case I: SY & CC, simultaneously rupturing of FRP bars
Case II: SY, FRP rupture and CC takes place simultaneously.

Case I: This condition states yielding of steel bar, crushing of concrete happen before FRP
rebar rupture.

Effective Reinforcement Ratio (ρn,E)

𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸 𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴 + 𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸 𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴 𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸
= = 𝜌𝜌𝜌𝜌 + ρf (5)
𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸 𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏 𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸

3
E3S Web of Conferences 391, 01210 (2023) https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202339101210
ICMED-ICMPC 2023

For Case I, balanced reinforcement ratio ρb,E

𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓 𝜀𝜀𝜀𝜀𝜀𝜀
= 𝛼𝛼1𝛽𝛽1 (6)
𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓 𝜀𝜀𝜀𝜀𝜀𝜀+ 𝜀𝜀𝜀𝜀

Case II: In this case yielding of steel rebars then FRP rebar rupture (ff=ffd) and concrete
crushing occur synchronously
Effective Reinforcement Ratio (ρbf,S)
𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓 𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴 + 𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓 𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴 𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓
= 𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓 𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏
 ൌ𝜌𝜌𝜌𝜌 + 𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓
ρf (7)

For Case II, balanced reinforcement ratio in terms of steel strength ρb,E
𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓 𝜀𝜀𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐
= 𝛼𝛼1𝛽𝛽1 (8)
𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓 𝜀𝜀𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐+ 𝜀𝜀𝑦𝑦

For Case II, balanced reinforcement ratio in terms of FRP strength (ρbf,F)
𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓 𝜀𝜀𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐
= 𝛼𝛼1𝛽𝛽1 (9)
𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓 𝜀𝜀𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐+ 𝜀𝜀𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓

From Case I, if ρn,E is greater than ρb,E the failure of beam is directly takes place due to
Concrete crushing which is inadmissible. From Case II condition, if ρn,F is less than balanced
ratio then there will be no reserved strength in FRP bars and the section is not admissible as
the members are designed to fail by rupture of FRP bars. Hence, for Concrete beams using
both Fibre and steel Rebars the section is admissible if it satisfies both equation 10 and 11.
ρn,E ρb,E    (10)
ρn,F ρb,f (11)
where Ef and Es are FRP and Steel bar modulus of elasticity; fy is steel rebar strength in
yielding; ffd is FRP rebar design tensile strength where ffd=0.7ffu, where ffu is GFRP bars
ultimate tensile strength.
α1=0.85, β1=0.85 εfd=ffd/Ef and εcu=0.003

Table 1. Flexural failure conditions of Concrete beams using FRP and Steel bars
Reinforcement Failure Mode Remarks
Condition
ρn,E>ρb,E CC, steel nonyielding, FRP non-rupturing Inadmissible

ρn,F<ρbf SY, FR, concrete non-crushing Inadmissible

ρn,EρbE and SY, CC, FRP non-rupturing Permissible

ρn,Fρbf

Table 2. Reinforcement Ratios of RC beams using GFRP and Steel bars

Beam Type Main ρn,E ρb,E ρn,F ρb,F Remarks
Reinforcement (%) (%) (%) (%)
Steel GFRP

Hybrid RC 2φ12 2φ12 1.09 1.93 1.83 0.695 Admissible

beam

4
E3S Web of Conferences 391, 01210 (2023) https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202339101210
ICMED-ICMPC 2023

Table 3. Test Matrix details

Beam Type Main Af As As/ ρf ρs

Reinforcement (mm2) (mm2) Af (Af/bd) (As/bd)
Steel GFRP

Hybrid RC 2φ12 2φ12 226.19 226.19 1 0.005 0.005

beam

The details of Cross section, longitudinal section parameters, Area ratios and reinforcement
ratios of RC beam which satisfies the above condition of Failure mode are presented in Table
no 2, 3 and Fig 5,6. The cross-sectional details of beam specimen are as follows:
Length = 2 metres; width of beam = 150 mm; depth of beam = 200mm

Fig. 5. Longitudinal Section of beam

Fig. 6. Cross-section of the beam

5
E3S Web of Conferences 391, 01210 (2023) https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202339101210
ICMED-ICMPC 2023

3 Discussions
1. This paper reviewed the possible failure modes of Hybrid Reinforced Concrete beam
using FRP bar, steel bar and validates the permissible failure for given beam
specimen.
2. Reinforced Concrete beam with only steel bars undergoes ductile failure when it
undergoes Concrete Crushing followed by Steel yielding.
3. Reinforced Concrete beam using only FRP bars undergoes failure by Crushing of
Concrete then FRP rebars which is preferable approach as per ACI 440.1R
4. Yielding of steel rebar then crushing of concrete and eventually rupturing of FRP
rebar is the preferable failure mode for beams when steel rebar and FRP rebars are
used as reinforcement.

References
1. Kim, Seongeun, and Seunghun Kim. "Flexural behavior of concrete beams with
steel bar and FRP reinforcement." Journal of asian architecture and building
engineering 18.2: 89-97 (2019).
2. Lu, C. H., et al. "Experimental study of flexural behavior and serviceability of
hybrid concrete beams reinforced by steel and G/BFRP bars." IOP Conference
Series: Materials Science and Engineering. Vol. 770. No. 1. IOP Publishing, (2020).
3. Ge, Wenjie, et al. "Flexural behaviors of hybrid concrete beams reinforced with
BFRP bars and steel bars." Construction and Building Materials 87 : 28-37, (2015)
4. Ruan, Xiangjie, et al. "Flexural behavior and serviceability of concrete beams
hybrid-reinforced with GFRP bars and steel bars." Composite structures 235:
111772, (2020).
5. Yinghao, Liu, and Yuan Yong. "Arrangement of hybrid rebars on flexural behavior
of HSC beams." Composites Part B: Engineering 45.1: 22-31, (2013).
6. Xingyu, Gu, Dai Yiqing, and Jiang Jiwang. "Flexural behavior investigation of
steel-GFRP hybrid-reinforced concrete beams based on experimental and numerical
methods." Engineering Structures 206 : 110117,(2020)
7. Ge, Wenjie, et al. "Flexural behaviors of hybrid concrete beams reinforced with
BFRP bars and steel bars." Construction and Building Materials 87: 28-37, (2015)
8. Sun, Qiang, et al. "Flexural behavior of PVA‐FRC GFRP reinforced concrete
beams." Polymer Composites 42.7: 3331-3348 (2021).
9. Sagar B, Sivakumar MV. Compressive properties and analytical modelling for
stress-strain curves of polyvinyl alcohol fiber reinforced concrete. Construction and
Building Materials ;291:123192 (2021).
10. Xingyu, Gu, Dai Yiqing, and Jiang Jiwang. "Flexural behavior investigation of
steel-GFRP hybrid-reinforced concrete beams based on experimental and numerical
methods." Engineering Structures 206: 110117 (2020).
11. Zaki, Mariam, et al. "Potential advantages of basalt FRP bars compared to carbon
FRP bars & conventional steel." Australian Journal of Civil Engineering 19.1 : 107-
122 (2021)