Evaluation and comparison of GRP and FRP applications on the behavior of RCCs made of NC and HSC

Abstract

This paper presents the results of axial pressure testing on reinforced concrete columns (RCCs) filled with confined normal concrete (NC) and high-strength concrete (HSC) using glass-fiber reinforced plastic pipes (GRP) casing as well as fiber reinforced polymer (FRP). This study aims to evaluate the behavior and mechanical properties of columns confined with GRP casing and FRP wrapping under pressure loads. The major parameters in the experiments were the type of concrete, the effect of GRP casing and FRP wrapping, as well as the number of FRP layers. 12 cylindrical RCCs (150*600) mm were prepared and divided into two groups, NC and HSC, and each group was divided into two parts. In each part, one column was without FRP strengthening layer, a column was wrapped with one FRP layer and another column with two FRP layers. All columns were tested under concentrated compression load. The results of the study showed that the utilization of FRP wrapping and GRP casing improved compression capacity and ductility of RCCs. The addition of one and two layers-FRP wrapping increased compression capacity in the NC group to an average of 18.5% and 26.5% and to an average of 10.2% and 24.8% in the HSC group. Meanwhile, the utilization of GRP casing increased the compression capacity of the columns by 4 times in the NC group and 3.38 times in the HSC group. The results indicated that although both FRP wrapping and GRP casing result in confinement, the GRP casing resulted in increased compression capacity and ductility of the RCCs due to higher confinement. Furthermore, the confinement effect was higher on columns made with NC.