Static flexural performance of GFRP-polymer concrete hybrid beams

In this paper it is reported a research undertaken in hybrid beams, where GFRP pultruded profiles are assembled, in an innovative way, with a layer of polymer concrete. The various beams were designed considering a pultrusion profile that will work in tension, and a polymer concrete filling that will work mainly in compression, in order to take benefit from the best mechanical properties of both materials. A model implemented in a finite element code was developed in order to predict the experimental results. Several beams, with four different hybrid designs, were tested in four-point bending and the flexural behaviour of such structures was studied. The results obtained show the synergetic effect of the joining of these two classes of materials.