Behaviour of steel-reinforced recycled aggregate concrete-filled GFRP tubular short columns under eccentric axial compression

Abstract

Since the mechanical properties of recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) are different from those of natural aggregate concrete (NAC), the mechanical behaviour of reinforced RAC members has attracted great interest. Meanwhile, fibre-reinforced plastics (FRP) have been applied to improve the load capacity of concrete members owing to their good durability. This study primarily focused on the performance of glass FRP (GFRP) confined steel-reinforced RAC short columns (FCSRAC) under eccentric compression. In this study, 29 FCSRAC were used to understand the effects of the recycled coarse aggregate (RCA) replacement rate, strength of RAC, eccentric distance, fibre orientation of the GFRP tube, strength of the GFRP, and longitudinal reinforcement ratio on the eccentric compression behaviour. The results show that the longitudinal steel bar ratio and hoop strength of the GFRP tube play a critical role in the load capacity of the FCSRAC, especially at large eccentric distances. With improved steel bars and GFRP tubes, RAC can be used in core concrete to replace NAC in a column. In addition, a prediction model of the load capacity of the FCSRAC was proposed based on Samaan's model and the static equilibrium principle, introducing the eccentric distance, fibre orientation of the GFRP tube, and RCA replacement rate. The predicted results agree with the experimental results.