GFRP sections with filler concrete material form promising structural components for structures; therefore, the structural performance of them has been investigated with increasing popularity. However, the performance of these composites degrades when fully composite action cannot be developed at the interface in where the literature hosts limited knowledge. Different techniques, such as abraded and sand-bonded surface treatments, were investigated experimentally to improve the bond-slip behavior between GFRP and concrete; however, there is a need to define shear mechanism at the interface of the numerical models. In this study, first, the average frictional bearing strengths were extracted for the treated and untreated inner surfaces using experimental results; then, the coulomb friction model was utilized to transfer the shear stresses between two dissimilar materials. Numerical models were verified by the experimental results, and different parametric studies were investigated by varying the amount and shape of GFRP in the cross section, compressive strength of concrete including the non-linear material behavior and interface frictional contact models. The findings showed that the interface strength can improve the flexural capacity of the concrete-filled GFRP beams by about 15.4%. Square GFRP box sections can be suggested for the construction of hybrid beams instead of rectangular sections, whereas the 10% areal ratio in a square cross section reached 103% load capacity improvement. The increased nominal compressive strength of concrete in hybrid beams can increase the hollow GFRP beams’ nominal load capacities and elastic stiffness of the hybrid beams in between; however, the relative gain is reduced due to increased compressive strength of concrete.

Reinforced concrete buildings, which constitute most of the building stock in Turkey, should be examined in terms of earthquake resistance. Many studies have been carried out to increase the seismic resistance of reinforced concrete (RC) structures against earthquakes. In this study, a single-story, single-span RC frame stiffened with chevron steel braces was chosen as a reference frame and laterally loaded to failure. In the first step, the experimentally obtained static lateral load-deflection curve was verified by non-linear finite element (FE) analysis. Then, the uniaxial tensile properties of the selected glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) materials were verified using FE analysis with the results found in the literature. In the second step, three different GFRP box braces with different axial stiffnesses were investigated and the results were compared with those of the steel chevron braces. Finally, the lateral load performance and expected buckling failure of the GFRP box braces in an RC moment frame have been presented and discussed in this study. Considering the lightweight of the GFRP sections, the lateral load capacity of the RC frame with GFRP braces was improved as much as the steel braces, and the maximum gain was about 47% more when the equal axial stiffness of steel brace was provided to GFRP brace. Ductility and story drift of the considered braced moment frames are presented.