Cross-sectional shape effect of stay-in-place formwork column on axial compressive behaviour

Abstract

Experimental and numerical studies on the behavior of composite columns with prefabricated self-compacting mortar (SCM) stay-in-place (SIP) formwork and post-cast normal-strength core concrete were presented.The axial compression of twenty-eight reinforcement concrete (RC) composite columns having square or circular cross-section shapes, with formwork thicknesses of 10 mm or 15 mm, and confined with one or two layers of Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer (CFRP (, were tested. A finite element (FE) model was generated to simulate the stress–strain relationship, and failure mode of the column using ABAQUS software. The results show that square cross-section-shaped columns exhibited lower axial load and displacement capacities than their counterparts of equivalent circular cross-section-shaped columns. This behavior maintained consistent regardless of the use of the SCM-SIP formworks or the wrapping with CFRP fabrics. Among the various confinement systems compared in this study, the efficiency of the CFRP was the greatest. Good bonding with no peeling failure was observed between SCM-SIP formwork and core concrete, indicating the good integrity of the composite columns. Consistency between the FE model and experimental results was observed for both cross-section shapes, indicating the precise and plausible characteristics of the model to sensibly estimate the stress-strain behaviors.