BEHAVIOUR OF FRP-REINFORCED CONCRETE ARCHES

Deterioration of underground tunnel linings made of steel-reinforced concrete arch segments due to the corrosion of steel reinforcement has become a critical issue. To address this issue, concrete arch segments reinforced with durable fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) bars have attracted increasing research attention. When FRP bars are used, the strict limit on chloride ions in concrete production can be relaxed, so that seawater and sea-sand may be used as raw materials in the construction, which offers compelling economic and environmental advantages. This paper presents a combined theoretical and experimental study on the structural behaviour of FRP-reinforced seawater sea-sand concrete (SSC) arches. The experimental work involved a test on an FRP-SSC arch specimen, which provides the first insight into the behaviour and failure mode of such arches.