Effectiveness of FRP confinement on bearing strength of steel fibre reinforced concrete

Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymers (CFRP) is successfully used to strengthen concrete members in compression, shear and flexure. This paper reports the results of an experimental study into the confinement efficiency of CFRP for bearing strength of steel fibre-reinforced concrete. The total area to bearing area ratio is maintained at 4.6. The results indicate that the confinement efficiency of CFRP, under both compression and bearing, had increased by the presence of steel fibres in the concrete matrix. The relationship between confinement efficiency and steel fibre content has to be established through future results. The ductility improvement for confined concrete over the unconfined concrete is observed from the results. The addition of high modulus steel fibres have further increased the ductility of confined concrete due to the crack arresting capacity of the fibres