Behaviour of Concrete-Filled Fibre Tubes Under Axial Compression and Lateral Loading

Abstract

The steel reinforcement in the infrastructures throughout the world undergoes corrosion and it leads to the need for a new product, to those involved with reinforced concrete structures. Concrete-filled fibre-reinforced tubes (CFFT) are formed by combining the concrete and the fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) sheets with epoxy in which concrete is filled in the prebuilt FRP tube. CFFT columns can be effectively used for earthquake resistant designs, because the lateral confinement increases the ultimate axial strain and compressive strength of concrete (Ozbakkaloglu and Oehlers in Journal of Composites for Construction, 12:469–477, 2008). This work mainly deals with the performance of CFFT and conventional columns under combined axial compression and lateral loading using Ansys workbench. The objectives of this study were to compare the seismic action of conventional columns with CFFT columns using different FRPs such as carbon, glass and aramid, and CFFT columns using different FRP rods made of carbon, glass and aramid fibres. An experimental study was also conducted to validate the material properties of fibres which were used in the seismic study of columns. The compressive strength of ordinary concrete cylinders, concrete-filled glass fibre tube cylinders and concrete-filled carbon fibre tube cylinders were found out. The test results revealed that CFFT columns can produce huge inelastic deformation capacities under seismic loading.