Behavior of unconfined and CFRP confined rubberized concrete

Abstract

Abstract The use of rubberized concrete (RuC) is an effective environmental approach to reduce the amount of scrap tires around the world. However, there are serious concerns regarding the compressive strength of RuC. This article investigates the use of externally bonded carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) jackets on RuC to develop a novel high strength and deformable CFRP confined RuC. In this study, 66 RuC cylinders were cast with 0, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50% fine or coarse rubber to replace mineral aggregates. The RuC cylinders were then confined with one, two or three layers of CFRP jackets. The results indicated 208% high lateral strains in unconfined RuC as compared to the conventional concrete. CFRP jacketing was highly effective for enhancing the compressive strength and deformation capacity of RuC, where high compressive strength enhancement of 52 MPa and deformation capacity (317% axial strain) was achieved. The confined compressive strength test results were compared with the strength models to assess their validity for CFRP confined RuC. An analysis-oriented strength model was developed to predict the axial compressive strength of RuC confined by CFRP jackets. Overall, this study demonstrated the potential of using CFRP-confined RuC as a new structural material with improved strength and deformation.