Experimental investigation on the seismic behavior of concrete beams with prestressing carbon fiber reinforced polymer tendons

Seven prestressed concrete beams and one normal concrete beam were tested to study the seismic performance of concrete beams with prestressing carbon fiber reinforced polymer tendons. The failure modes, hysteretic curves, ductility, stiffness degeneration, and energy dissipation capacity were studied systematically. This study shows that the partial prestressing ratio is the main factor that affects the seismic performance of carbon fiber reinforced polymer prestressed concrete beams. The beam is more resilient to seismic loads as the partial prestressing ratio decreases. Under the same partial prestressing ratio value, the energy dissipation capacity of prestressed concrete beams with unbonded carbon fiber reinforced polymer tendons was better than that of prestressed beams with bonded carbon fiber reinforced polymer tendons. When combining both bonded and unbonded prestressing carbon fiber reinforced polymer tendons, the ductility index of concrete beams was improved. Compared with that of fully unbonded and fully bonded carbon fiber reinforced polymer prestressed concrete beams, the ductility index of concrete beams with combined bonded and unbonded prestressing tendons increased by 26% and 12%, respectively.