Fire Resistance Behaviour of FRP Reinforced Concrete Slabs

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Applications of fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) reinforcing bars for creating new, durable concrete structures are rapidly becoming a viable option in North American infrastructure. While FRP reinforcement has mainly been applied for the construction of bridges, there is enormous potential for FRP reinforcement in multi-storey buildings, parking garages, and industrial structures. However, before FRP can be used in structural members in buildings, the ability of FRP reinforced concrete members to meet fire resistance requirements, prescribed in building codes, must be established. The proposed research will address this knowledge gap through a combination of material testing, full-scale fire tests, and numerical modelling. Thus, the main objectives of this research are to characterize the high temperature material properties of FRP bars, to evaluate the performance in fire of FRP reinforced concrete slabs through full-scale fire testing and numerical modelling, and to develop design guidelines for estimating the fire resistance of FRP reinforced concrete slabs. Material tests will be conducted on FRP bars at high temperature while full-scale fire tests will evaluate the performance of FRP reinforced concrete slabs at the component level. Numerical modelling of the thermal and structural performance of FRP reinforced slabs will incorporate the results of the material tests, and the models will be validated against the results from the full-scale fire tests. The results of the full-scale fire tests will be combined with numerical modelling to develop design recommendations for fire resistance. The knowledge gained from the research will allow the industry partners (Pultrall and BP Automation) to better understand the performance of their FRP products at high temperature, and if necessary, to enhance their products. One PhD student and one postdoctoral fellow will be trained. Finally, the project will contribute to the engineering research community by generating new knowledge on the performance of FRP reinforced concrete slabs when exposed to fire that will be incorporated into new design recommendations for FRP reinforced concrete slabs as part of the Canadian Standard CSA S806 on FRP for buildings.