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Bending behavior of concrete-filled FRP wound tubular arches with internal FRP bars
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  • Published: 09 February 2026

Bending behavior of concrete-filled FRP wound tubular arches with internal FRP bars

  • Benben Li1,
  • Zhenyuan Yang1,
  • Yujun Qi1,
  • Zhenglong Zhou1 &
  • …
  • Guowei Wang2 

Scientific Reports , Article number:  (2026) Cite this article

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We are providing an unedited version of this manuscript to give early access to its findings. Before final publication, the manuscript will undergo further editing. Please note there may be errors present which affect the content, and all legal disclaimers apply.

Subjects

  • Engineering
  • Materials science

Abstract

Conventional reinforced concrete arches are susceptible to corrosion in underground environments, leading to reduced durability. This study proposes concrete-filled FRP (Fiber-reinforced polymer) wound tubular arches with internal FRP bars to achieve excellent corrosion resistance. Eighteen concrete-filled FRP tubular arches were tested under mid-span concentrated loading, and the effects of FRP tube wall thickness and FRP reinforcement configuration were investigated. The experimental results demonstrate that increasing the wall thickness of the FRP tube significantly enhances the ultimate load-bearing capacity, with a maximum increase of 104.7% observed under mid-span loading. The incorporation of FRP reinforcement also resulted in 236.3%~279% increase of ultimate capacity and 111.11%-119.67% increase of displacement ductility ratio. A simplified theoretical model for predicting the ultimate load of concrete-filled FRP tubular arches with internal FRP bars was proposed, achieving a relative error within 10%. The proposed concrete-filled FRP tubular arch demonstrates considerable potential for application in underground engineering.

Data availability

The data provided in the manuscript are comprehensive and available upon request to the corresponding author.

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Funding

The work was fully supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2023YFB3711600) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52208252).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Civil Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, 211816, China

    Benben Li, Zhenyuan Yang, Yujun Qi & Zhenglong Zhou

  2. Bengbu Expressway Management Center of Anhui Transportation Holding Group Co., Ltd., Bengbu, 233040, China

    Guowei Wang

Authors
  1. Benben Li
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  2. Zhenyuan Yang
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  3. Yujun Qi
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  4. Zhenglong Zhou
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  5. Guowei Wang
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Contributions

Benben Li: Writing- original draft, Conceptualization. Zhenyuan Yang: Formal analysis, Data curation. Yujun Qi: Funding acquisition, Writing- review & editing, Supervision. Zhenglong Zhou: Supervision. Guowei Wang: Formal analysis, Data curation.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yujun Qi.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Li, B., Yang, Z., Qi, Y. et al. Bending behavior of concrete-filled FRP wound tubular arches with internal FRP bars. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-38886-w

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  • Received: 17 December 2025

  • Accepted: 31 January 2026

  • Published: 09 February 2026

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-38886-w

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Keywords

  • GFRP tubular arches
  • GFRP rebar
  • Ultimate load
  • Bending behavior
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