Experimental study on shear performance of basalt fiber concrete beams without web reinforcement

In this study, we report the results of an experimental investigation conducted under a four-point bending loading in order to evaluate the shear performance of concrete beams reinforced with basalt fiber without web reinforcement. According to the experimental results, it is evident that the final failure morphology of concrete-basalt fiber concrete composite beams and conventional concrete beams was shear failure, whereas the failure morphology of concrete beams reinforced with full basalt fiber was bending failure. Moreover, the results also indicate that the cracking load and ultimate bearing capacity of concrete composite beams reinforced with concrete-basalt fiber are lower than those of conventional concrete beam. This is mainly due to the interface between ordinary post-cast concrete and concrete reinforced with hardened basalt fiber. Due to the superior tensile properties of fiber, composite beams and all basalt fiber concrete beams exhibit a higher degree of ductility than conventional concrete beams. Utilizing the existing calculation theory for concrete beams reinforced with fiber, it was calculated that the cracking load and ultimate load of basalt fiber beams were calculated, and the calculation results were consistent with the experimental results. Based on the results of the evaluation and the theoretical analysis, this study proposes a finite element modeling method for basalt fiber composite beams. The results of the analysis were consistent with the experimental results of all investigated beams. The established model was employed in order to investigate the influence of shear span ratio on the shear performance of basalt fiber beams.