Cyclic Behaviour of GFRP and Lateral Ties Confined Polyolefin Fibre Reinforced Concrete under Axial Repeated Compression

Abstract

Confinement by fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) wraps can significantly enhance strength and ductility of concrete. Although various models exist for envelope curves of concrete confined by transverse reinforcement and FRP, only a few simple models represent the hysteretic behavior of the confined concrete; therefore, development of stress–strain model of unloading and reloading paths for confined concrete is needed. In this paper, an experimental and numerical investigation for describing the cyclic stress–strain behavior of lateral ties and FRP confined polyolefin fibre reinforced concrete (FRPCFRC) prisms under repeated axial compressive loading is presented. The study focuses on the effect of repeated unloading and reloading cycles on confined concrete prisms. The combined effect of spacing of lateral ties, FRP wraps and volume fraction of polyolefin fibres was studied both experimentally and numerically from the point of deformability characteristics of concrete under repeated loading as loading, unloading and reloading.The envelope curve is derived from the results of uniaxial, monotonic, compression loading tests on specimens. It explicitly accounts for the effects of lateral tie spacing of 145mm spacing and 75mm spacing, single layer of woven roving(GFRP) and polyolefin fibres of volume fractions 0.7% and 1.2% on concrete prisms of size 150 ×150 ×300 mm were investigated. The behaviour was also simulated in finite element numerical model in ANSYS software, with a view to analyzing FRPCFRC prisms under repeated loading. This analysis accounts for energy dissipation through hysteretic behavior, stiffness degradation as damage progresses, and degree of confinement. It was observed from hysteretic behavior that for increased confinement by FRP wraps and addition of polyolefin fibres the degradation of strength and stiffness reduces significantly.