Experimental Investigation of Concrete Shear Walls Reinforced with Glass Fiber–Reinforced Bars under Lateral Cyclic Loading

The present study addresses the applicability of reinforced concrete shear walls totally reinforced with glass fiber–reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars to attain reasonable strength and drift requirements as specified in different codes. Four large-scale shear walls—one reinforced with steel bars (as reference specimen) and three totally reinforced with GFRP bars—were constructed and tested to failure under quasistatic reversed cyclic lateral loading. The GFRP-reinforced walls have different aspect ratios covering the range of medium-rise walls. The reported test results clearly show that properly designed and detailed GFRP-reinforced walls could reach their flexural capacities with no strength degradation and that shear, sliding shear, and anchorage failures were not major problems and can be effectively controlled. The results also show recoverable and self-centering behavior up to allowable drift limits before moderate damage occurs and achieving a maximum drift meeting the limitation of most building codes. Acceptable levels of energy dissipation accompanied by relatively small residual forces, compared to the steel-reinforced wall, were observed. The promising results can provide impetus for constructing shear walls reinforced with GFRP and constitute a step toward using GFRP reinforcement in such lateral-resisting systems.