Assessment of the Development Length Equation for GFRP Rebars in Tension

Presented By: Jesus Ortiz, University of Miami Description: Due to the lack of available data when the current ACI 440 development length equation was developed, conservative assumptions were made, and the effect of some parameters were disregarded. Additionally, the bars used to develop the equation are no longer available today and since its calibration, there have been significant improvements in FRP material properties and production methods. Some studies have found over-conservative values when using the equation to compute the required development length. However, there is no consensus in the literature as some results have also proved to be unconservative. Therefore, to incorporate the improvements in materials and new literature data, a research project is being carried out to re-assess the current equation, which aims to evaluate it with the available literature data and with test results of GFRP RC-beams fabricated with different parameters.