Ductility of nonmetallic hybrid fiber composite reinforcement for concrete

Reinforcing units, FRP, of unidirectional fiber composites for concrete have elastic behavior up to tensile failure. For safety reasons an elongation of 3% at maximum load is usually required for the reinforcement. Ductile behavior with the necessary elongation and stress hardening could be obtained with braided fiber strands around a core of foam plastic, thin glass fiber cylindrical shell, or unidirectional carbon fibers. Braids around a porous core reveal the ductility when epoxy resin breaks up and collapse of core enables the braids to rotate. The same seems to happen at that cross section, where carbon fiber core breaks in tension. The best result is obtained using a cylindrical glass fiber reinforced core shell surrounded with aramid fiber braid.