Glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars are becoming a rational alternative to steel bars in reinforced concrete members as a way to address issues of corrosion and electromagnetic interference. This growing interest in GFRP reinforcing bars has resulted in an increase of the types of products and their quantities in the market. GFRP bars are typically produced in an automated pultrusion process; however, when curved or bent bars are to be manufactured, non-standardized production processes are adopted, which differ among manufacturers. In general, a variety of bars, straight and bent and from different manufacturers, are available. This results in variability of the products, which raises concerns regarding quality and durability of the bars. Quality control and assurance testing is one way for checking the bars before installation in structures. In this paper, several testing protocols for GFRP reinforcing bars are discussed and compared in terms of information obtained on the quality of the bars, ease of testing and practicality for quality control and assurance testing. The tested bars are straight bars produced by pultrusion and bent bars manufactured via non-standard, customized procedures. Bars from two different companies are tested and the results are discussed.

GFRP (glass fiber reinforced polymer), reinforcement, composite, quality control, tensile testing, flexural testing, shear testing, compression testing, cure ratio, results, analysis, discussion.