FLEXURAL BEHAVIOR OF CONCRETE BEAMS REINFORCED WITH DEFORMED FIBER REINFORCED PLASTIC REINFORCING RODS. DISCUSSION

A discussion of a paper with the aforementioned title by R. Masmoudi, M. Theriault, and B. Benmokrane, published in this journal (Volume 95, Number 6, November-December 1998), is presented. The discusser stresses that the brittle behavior of the deformed plastic bars at ultimate state of failure requires that only 30-35% of the ultimate load be utilized at the working load level. Additional reserve strength has to be allowed in the design, if the usual expressions for flexural design of concrete members are to be used. In this manner, serviceability conditions as defined by crack control and deflection control can be within tolerable limits.