The use of sustainable materials is a challenging issue for the construction industry; thus, Fiber Reinforced Polymers (FRP) is of interest to civil and structural engineers for their lightweight and high-strength properties. The paper describes the results of tensile and shear strength testing of Basalt FRP (BFRP) and Hybrid FRP (HFRP) bars. The combination of carbon fibers and basalt fibers leads to a more cost-efficient alternative to Carbon FRP (CFRP) and a more sustainable alternative to BFRP. The bars were subjected to both tensile and shear strength testing in order to investigate their structural behavior and find a correlation between the results. The results of the tests done on BFRP and HFRP bars showed that the mechanical properties of BFRP bars were lower than for HFRP bars. The maximum tensile strength obtained for a BFRP bar with a diameter of 10 mm was equal to approximately 1150 MPa, whereas for HFRP bars with a diameter of 8 mm, it was higher, approximately 1280 MPa. Additionally, better results were obtained for HFRP bars during shear testing; the average maximum shear stress was equal to 214 MPa, which was approximately 22% higher than the average maximum shear stress obtained for BFRP bars. However, HFRP bars exhibited the lowest shear strain of 57% that of BFRP bars. This confirms the effectiveness of using HFRP bars as a replacement for less rigid BFRP bars. It is worth mentioning that after obtaining these results, shear testing can be performed instead of tensile testing for future studies, which is less complicated and takes less time to prepare than tensile testing.

The paper describes the recent developments of Hybrid Fibre-Reinforced Polymer (HFRP) and nano-Hybrid Fibre-Reinforced Polymer (nHFRP) bars. Hybridization of less expensive basalt fibres with carbon fibres leads to more sustainable alternative to Basalt-FRP (BFRP) bars and more economically-efficient alternative to Carbon-FRP (CFRP) bars. The New-Developed HFRP bars were subjected to tensile axial loading to investigate its structural behaviour. The effect of hybridization on tensile properties of HFRP bars was verified experimentally by comparing the results of tensile test of HFRP bars with non-hybrid BFRP bars. It is worth to mention that the difference in obtained strength characteristics between analytical and numerical considerations was very small, however the obtained results were much higher than results obtained experimentally. Authors suggested that lower results obtained experimentally can be explained by imperfect interphase development and therefore attempted to improve the chemical cohesion between constituents by adding nanosilica particles to matrix consistency.

One of the main concerns of experimental and numerical investigations regarding the behavior of fiber-reinforced polymer reinforced concrete (FRP-RC) members is their fire resistance to elevated temperatures and structural performance at and after fire exposure. However, the data currently available on the behavior of fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) reinforced members related to elevated temperatures are scarce, specifically relating to the strength capacity of beams after being subjected to elevated temperatures. This paper investigates the residual strength capacity of beams strengthened internally with various (FRP) reinforcement types after being subjected to high temperatures, reflecting the conditions of a fire. The testing was made for concrete beams reinforced with three different types of FRP bars: (i) basalt-FRP (BFRP), (ii) hybrid FRP with carbon and basalt fibers (HFRP) and (iii) nano-hybrid FRP (nHFRP), with modification of the epoxy matrix of the rebar. Tested beams were first loaded at 50% of their ultimate strength capacity, then unloaded before being heated in a furnace and allowed to cool, and finally reloaded flexurally until failure. The results show an atypical behavior observed for HFRP bars and nHFRP bars reinforced beams, where after a certain temperature threshold the deflection began to decrease. The authors suggest that this phenomenon is connected with the thermal expansion coefficient of the carbon fibers present in HFRP and nHFRP bars and therefore creep can appear in those fibers, which causes an effect of “prestressing” of the beams.

The fire resistance of fiber-reinforced polymer reinforced concrete (FRP-RC) elements depends on the temperature performance of the original concrete member, the fire scenario, and FRP reinforcement behavior. In this study, fire resistance tests are described, along with the characteristics obtained during and after applying elevated temperatures, simulating the effects of fire. The tested beams were reinforced with basalt (BFRP) bars and with a hybrid composite of carbon fibers and basalt fibers (HFRP) bars. Fire tests were performed on full-scale beams, in which the midsections of the beams were heated from below (tension zone) and from the sides for two hours, after which the beams were cooled and subjected to flexural testing. BFRP-RC beams failed before the heating time was completed; the best failure was associated with a BFRP reinforced beam that failed approximately 108 min after heating. Contrary to the BFRP-RC samples, HFRP-RC beams were capable of resisting exposure to elevated temperatures for two hours, but showed a 70% reduction in strength capacity when compared to non-heated reference beams. According to the author, the higher resistance of HFRP-RC beams was the result of the thermal expansion coefficient of carbon fibers employed in HFRP, which “prestresses” the beams and enables smaller deflections. The preliminary findings of this study can increase the feasibility of using FRP materials for engineering purposes.

Many studies on Fibre-Reinforced Polymers Reinforced Concrete (FRP-RC) beams tested in flexure have been performed by various researchers around the world. This work presents the results of statistical and mathematical analyses based on experimental data; 102 samples were collected and supplemented from 16 different scientific papers. The load capacity of the beams determined on the basis of the tests was compared with the load capacity calculated on the basis of the recommendations of ACI 440.1R-15. The results obtained from experimental studies showed that for 91.4% of the samples, the underestimation of the load capacity on average was equal to 15.2% of theoretical, and for 33.3% of the beams, the load capacity was overestimated by 26.7%. The paper proposes a new empirical coefficient incorporating material parameters to be implemented into ACI 440.1R-15 flexural design approach in order to improve the accuracy of this model in scope of the nominal flexural strength capacity of FRP-reinforced beams estimation. Modifications to flexural design of FRP-RC beams with the use of ACI 440.1R-15 design code were proposed. As a result, the reliability of the analytical model is increased; therefore, the new model guarantees higher safety and cost efficiency of designed concrete structures reinforced with FRP bars.