High Strength Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete (GFRC) Corbels

The aim of the thesis is to investigate the effect of glass fiber on the mechanical behavior of reinforced concrete corbels. This study is the first experimental investigation that describes the behavior of high strength glass fiber reinforced concrete corbels. A total of 9 double sided corbels has been made of high strength concrete with a compressive strength of approximately 100 MPa. These specimens were loaded with vertical load until failure in which the shear span, and the fiber percentage were varied. All corbels have the same size and reinforced with the same main reinforcement. Test results show that the addition of glass fiber to the specimens enhanced the bearing capacity of corbels and improved the ductility remarkably. The cracking of glass fiber reinforced specimens were slower compared to the plain specimens, moreover, the fibrous corbels has much smaller crack width as compared to corbels without glass fiber this reduction leads to long service life which a desirable characteristic in corbels design. However, the mode of failure of corbels was sudden even after the addition of glass fiber. In addition, the results indicate a significant reduction in the strength of the specimens with and without glass fiber as the shear span increased.