Shear Strength Prediction of Concrete Beams Reinforced with FRP Bars and Stirrups Using Gene Expression Programming

Existing reinforced concrete (RC) structures in humid regions suffer from deterioration due to the corrosion of ordinary reinforcement bars damaging the whole system. The deterioration of the transverse reinforcement leads to shear failure, which is one of the most dangerous failure modes. Therefore, researchers suggested using fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) bars as a replacement for reinforcement bars in humid regions to integrate sustainability and improve their serviceability and durability. A simple model that can accurately estimate the shear strength of concrete beams designed with FRP longitudinal bars and stirrups is lacking. This research proposed a simplified Gene expression programming (GEP) based model to estimate the shear strength of FRP concrete beams. Seven parameters that principally dominate the shear behavior of FRP beams were utilized to create the GEP model. The parameters are the beam width, beam depth, concrete compressive strength, FRP tensile longitudinal reinforcement ratio, area of stirrups, spacing between the stirrups, and the ultimate FRP strength of stirrups. A comparison was made between the GEP and ACI-440 models; the R2 values of the total database were 92% and 54% for the GEP and ACI models, respectively. The R2 of the GEP model is considerably higher than that measured for the ACI model, and the errors of the GEP model are low, which affirms that the GEP is superior to the ACI model in estimating the shear strength of FRP beams. The trends of the GEP and ACI-440 models and the empirical results are similar, confirming the GEP model’s consistency. Using the GEP model to estimate the shear strength of concrete beams designed with FRP longitudinal bars and stirrups is recommended.