Confinement Effectiveness of CFRP in Axial Members under Various Loading Conditions

In this study, parameters affecting the mechanical properties of FRP-confined cylindrical and prismatic concrete columns were studied via experimental data, which were collected after an extensive literature review. The parameters were summarized as unconfined concrete strength, FRP thickness, cylinder diameter, overlap length of FRP, sustained stress level, heating-cooling effect and corner radius in prismatic specimens. Considering these parameters the confinement effectiveness is established analytically in the light of ultimate strength values obtained from the test results available in the literature. No steel reinforcement is taken into account because the main aim is to capture the behavior of FRP-confinement only. The analytical results revealed that unconfined concrete strength, FRP thickness, cross-sectional dimension of the specimen are the main parameters controlling the confinement effectiveness in cylindrical specimens. In addition to these parameters corner radius and sustained stress level are found to be significant in prismatic specimens