“Self-sensing CF-GFRP rods as mechanical reinforcement and sensors of concrete beams”

n this paper testing carried out on concrete beams reinforced with self-sensing composite rods is presented. Such concrete beams, whose peculiarity is to be reinforced by self-sensing materials able to generate an alarm signal when fixed loads are reached, were designed, manufactured and tested. The reinforcing rods were manufactured by pultrusion and consisted of self-sensing hybrid composites containing both glass and carbon fibres in an epoxy resin. The experimentation was carried out by performing simultaneously mechanical tests on the reinforced beams and electrical measurements on the composite rods. The results showed that the developed system reached the target proposed, giving an alarm signal.