Confining effects of circular concrete tests reinforced PET fiber

Abstract

The aims of this study are, first, to determine the confining effect of concrete specimens reinforced with carbon fiber (CF) or glass fiber (GF), and second, to compare the confining effect of PET fiber-reinforced concrete specimens with the above, CF- or GF-reinforced specimens so as to ultimately determine whether PET fiber can play a role as a reinforcement. Toward this end, the study produced circular specimens of 100 mm in diameter and 300 mm in height and conducted a test after reinforcing these specimens with CF, GF, or PET fiber, for which the types of the reinforcement, the number of reinforcement layers, and concrete strength were the key parameters. The test results showed there was little improvement of strength with the specimens reinforced with PET sheets when compared to those with CF or GF; however, the ductility had greatly improved while maintaining the strength so that the test completed as the PET fiber-reinforced specimens did not reach compressive fracture and PET fiber consistently supported lateral confinement. As a result, it showed that reinforcement with PET fiber would prevent the worst case of structures collapsing complete; therefore, that PET fiber would be used in construction projects.