Long-Term Durability of Shear Critical GFRP RC Beams

An extensive experimental and analytical research programme underway at the University of Toronto includes 12 GFRP-reinforced beams (10 flexural critical and 2 shear critical) with 3000 mm span length. Due to the space limitation, only the detailed results of shear critical beams are discussed in this paper. Both the beams were completely reinforced with GFRP straight and bent bars. One beam was tested at room temperature and the second beam was subjected to accelerated thermal conditioning to simulate long-term behaviour of GFRP RC beams considering the recent climate challenges leading to increasing temperatures across the world. Conditioning of the beam was carried out at 50 °C for four months under 60% relative humidity while subjected to sustained load throughout the conditioning period. No significant reduction in the capacity was observed because of the conditioning.