Reinforced concrete is an important construction material for infrastructure in industrial facilities for oil and gas production and in refineries for processing crude oil. Due to the prevailing harsh environmental conditions, the steel reinforcement in reinforced concrete structures takes place at a rapid pace diminishing their service life. Non-metallic materials have emerged as a potential solution to combat the enormous cost of repair and rehabilitation of structural elements due to corrosion of steel reinforcement in concrete structures. The use of glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars in reinforced concrete structures has gained popularity in recent years. This is mainly due to the development of a new generation of high-quality and high-tensile strength GFRP bars, which would ensure a maintenance-free service life of concrete structures of more than 100 years. A typical application is the reinforced concrete slabs supported on the ground and make up a large part of oil and gas installations. The effects of fire on GFRP reinforcing bars are particularly pronounced due to their plastic nature and susceptibility to fire. The polymeric matrix in which the fibers are embedded can lose its strength at high temperatures. This paper presents a finite element simulation of unloaded concrete slabs reinforced with GFRP bars subjected to fire. The effect of various types of GFRP bars, cover to the reinforcement, concrete strength, and selected fire types are presented. Once fire safety with a 2-hour fire rating is assured, ground-supported slabs reinforced with GFRP bars can be used in large areas of industrial facilities.
The non-metallic glass fiber reinforced GFRP bars has gained worldwide acceptance recently and are now being used in several applications in reinforced concrete structures such as sea wall, bridges, foundation, marine structure, pavements, barriers, and piles (1–3). The major impetus for its usage in Saudi Arabia emerged from the strategic decision by Saudi Aramco to make it mandatory for several non-structural applications such as slab-on-grade, stormwater channels, bulkheads, and pipe supports. The motivation was to combat the high cost of repair, rehabilitation, and reconstruction of deteriorated steel-reinforced concrete structures in a short span of time (4). The 21 km-long Jizan channel with 11 million meters of GFRP bars is the world's largest GFRP bar-reinforced concrete structure, which emerged from this strategic decision (5). The GFRP bar is a composite material that is made up of high tensile strength glass fibers embedded in polymer resin as a matrix (6). GFRP bar types include ribbed, sand-coated, and helically wrapped fiber bars which are currently manufactured in Saudi Arabia. These bars have high tensile strength, up to 1200 MPa showing a linear elastic behavior until failure, corrosion is not an issue for durability, it is easy to handle and cut, and is lightweight. The low self-weight, high-quality control, robust performance in salt-laden environment, and the speed of construction makes its usage in concrete economically viable and reduce the whole life cost, despite a slightly higher initial cost.
