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FRPs (fiber reinforced polymer) possess many favorable characteristics suitable and applicable for construction industry when compared with steel reinforcement. There are new ideas to use FRPs as longitudinal or transverse reinforcement for new concrete elements particularly for bridge decks or beams. Although high tensile strength of FRP is main characteristic for applications at both areas, its weakness to bending and linear stress-strain behavior with virtually no ductility, makes it vulnerable to probably premature failures under reversal tension-compression loading during earthquake. A pilot research project has been conducted to explore the characteristics of large-scale cantilever concrete beams reinforced with FRP re-bars and grids and were tested under either simulated cyclic loading or monotonically increasing lateral loading. This paper presents the test parameters and results obtained during research. The analytical relationships are compared with those recorded experimentally, and test results showed the diagonal cracks and either rupturing of FRP bars in tension or stability failure in compression bars at long or short shear span beams. The comparison of nominal moment capacities between analytical and experimental values confirms that plane section analysis is applicable to FRP reinforced concrete members.

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In this paper, an experimental study has been conducted on strengthening of reinforced concrete (RC) connections by FRP sheets. The innovation of this research is using narrow grooves on critical regions of connection to increase the adherence of FRP sheets and prevent their early debonding. Therefore, four RC connections were made and tested under a constant axial load on the column and an increasing cyclic load on the beam. The first specimen, as the standard reference specimen, had close tie spacing in ductile regions of beam, column and panel zone based on seismic design provisions, and the second specimen, as the weak reference specimen did not have these conditions in all regions. Two other weak specimens were strengthened using two different strengthening patterns with FRP sheets one by ordinary surface preparation and the other with surface grooving method for installing FRP sheets on the connection. The results showed that ultimate load and ductility of the weak specimen compared to standard specimen decreased 25% and 17%, respectively. The shear failure and concrete crushing were prevented in the ductile regions of the beam and panel zone in both strengthened specimens. Also, it was observed that early debonding of FRP sheets was prevented in the strengthened connection with grooving pattern and so had desirable ductility and bearing capacity similar to the standard specimen.