Agricultural concrete structures are reinforced by means of steel rods
. Because steel is corrosive, its life in reinforced structures is red
uced when exposed to manure gases or liquids. Research has been conduc
ted to develop a new reinforcing rod made of glass fiber and plastic a
s well as of high resistance to corrosion. Although the material offer
s improvements, its structural behaviour is still unknown. The model d
eveloped in this study compares steel rods and the new glassfiber rein
forced plastic rods as reinforcement in slats for beef floor. Since pl
astic rods are non-corrosive, the thickness of concrete protection has
been reduced as compared to that required by the Canadian Building Co
de, cracking can be neglected in the concrete, and more important defl
ection can be tolerated by the plastic. Being brittle but possessing a
high tensile resistance (690 MPa), its allowable stress must be reduc
ed adequately. The theoretical results show that the appropriate steel
section in a slat can be replaced by an identical section of fiber-gl
ass reinforced plastic rod. The deflection, however, will be twice the
expected deflection with steel rods. For typical slats, the design is
controlled by the deflection. As fiber-glass stirrups are not availab
le, the shear stress has to be carefully considered. The cost of fiber
-glass reinforced slats is higher than the conventional steel reinforc
ed slats.