Durability and service life prediction of GFRP bars embedded in concrete under acid environment

In recent years, glass fiber reinforcing polymers (GFRP) has emerged as an alternative to conventional steel reinforcing bars in concrete structures. The bond behavior of GFRP bars to concrete under acidic environment is important because of increasing acid rain in China nowadays. This paper presents an experimental investigation into comparison of the durability of the bond between GFRP and steel bars to concrete under acid environment. The specimens were subject to corrosion by immersion in acid solutions with different concentration. One hundred and twenty pullout specimens were used to study the effect of different environment on bond strength of GFRP and steel bars to concrete. Experimental results showed that, For GFRP bars, at the end of 75 days of conditioning duration, maximum bond strength loss of 11%, 22%, 17.2% and 14% were observed in tap water, pH = 2, pH = 3, and pH = 4 environment, respectively. For steel bars, at the end of 75 days of conditioning duration, maximum bond strength loss of 19.6% and 12.3% were observed in pH = 2 and pH = 3 environment, respectively. The influence of solution concentration on bond strength of GFRP bars was determined using Arrhenius equation and time shift method (TSF).