Performance of headed FRP bar reinforced concrete Beam-Column Joint

Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) bars have now been widely adopted as an alternative to traditional steel reinforcements in infrastructure and civil industries worldwide due variety of merits. This paper presents a numerical methodology to investigate FRP bar-reinforced beam-column joint behavior under quasi-static loading. The proposed numerical model is validated with test results considering load-deflection behavior, damage pattern at beam-column joint, and strain variation in reinforcements, wherein the results are in agreement. The numerical model is subsequently employed for parametric investigation to enhance the end-span beam-column joint performance using different joint reinforcement systems. To reduce the manufacturing issue of bend in the FRP bar, the headed FRP bar is employed in a beam-column joint, and performance was investigated at different column axial loads. Headed bar-reinforced beam-column joints show better performance as compared to beam-column joints having an L-bar in terms of concrete damage, load-carrying capacity, and joint shear strength. The applicability and efficiency of FRP bars at different story heights have also been investigated with varying column axial loads.