Experimental study on flexural performance of concrete cable duct reinforced with glass fiber reinforced polymer bars

A concrete cable duct reinforced with glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars was proposed. The newly developed cable duct is capable of reducing the energy dissipation and can be used to take place of traditional concrete cable duct which is reinforced with steel bars. The bending tests were conducted for several small and full size specimens of GFRP concrete cable duct and the bearing capacity of bending, deformation and failure characteristics were investigated. It is found that the mechanical characteristics of the GFRP concrete cable duct are similar with that of the concrete cable reinforced with steel bars. The loading-deflection curve is bi-linear with a cut-off point corresponding to the cracking of the concrete. The distribution of tension stresses on the side of the cable duct is not uniform and relatively high tension stresses are detected in some local regions. An appropriate calculation and design method was presented to capture the flexural capacity of the GFRP concrete cable duct. The theoretical predictions agree well with the experimental results.