Axial strength of FRP-confined reinforced concrete columns

Abstract

The enhancement of the axial strength of plain concrete columns wrapped with fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) fabrics has been extensively investigated, both analytically and experimentally. Respective research on reinforced concrete (RC) columns strengthened with FRP is significantly more limited. This paper deals with axially loaded RC columns fully wrapped with carbon and glass FRP, with circular, square, and rectangular cross-section. A simple design model is proposed and described in detail, which has resulted from a combination of Eurocode provisions in such a way that the predictions are good and also safe. Furthermore, three models from the literature, selected among others because of their good agreement with experimental data, are also presented and some of their aspects are discussed. All models are applied to 95 specimens tested in the literature. The criteria for selecting the models presented here were their simplicity in application, combined with their accuracy in predicting the strength of test data available in the literature. Copyright © 2016 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering & Research Institute for Sustainable Urban Development, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.