Effect of stirrup spacing and recycled steel wires on the shear and energy dissipation of pultruded GFRP hybrid beams

The contribution of Recycled Steel Wires (RSW) to the shear strength and behavior of pultruded glass fiber reinforced polymer (P-GFRP) hybrid composite beams with reinforced concrete infill, denoted as P-GFRP beams, was investigated experimentally and analytically in the current study. A total of six specimens with varying RSW ratio and stirrup spacing of the reinforced concrete (RC) core and a fixed shear span-to-beam depth ratio were tested to failure. The addition of RSW to concrete was established to have greater contribution to the beam strength with increasing stirrup spacing, that is, decreasing transverse reinforcement ratio. The contribution of RSW to energy dissipation capacity was found to be more pronounced in the elastic range of beam response as compared to the inelastic range. The theoretical calculations indicated that the RC core prevented the P-GFRP encasement from complete failure due to shear-induced material rupture at the initial stages of loading. By maintaining their integrity, the reinforced concrete-filled box beams (RCFB) were able to resist loading until complete failure associated with flexure-induced material rupture and web compression buckling. A strut-and-tie model providing accurate strength estimates for P-GFRP beams was also proposed.