Behaviour of column constructed with FRP tubes filled with concrete

Abstract

This paper investigates the behaviour of Concrete-Filled FRP Tubes (CFFT) as columns. The experimental programme consists of preparing and testing one steel column acting as control sample and three columns made with GFRP. The GFRP tubes were produced by filament winding method where the amount and orientation of the fibres was changed. The tubes had dimensions of 1000x100 mm (length x diameter) and were filled with C25/30 concrete. The columns were tested under compression and the load was applied at a pace rate of 0.5 mm/min. It was found that the GFRP tubes can efficiently confine the concrete and could be used as alternative material to steel tubes. The steel and GFRP samples developed a high level of strain throughout the testing. The GFRP sample with fibre orientation of 90° failed by FRP rupture, whereas the remaining samples failed by buckling. The orientation of the fibres at 90° was more efficient than orientation of fibres at 45° in terms of increasing the ultimate capacity. The GFRP samples displayed lower ultimate capacity compared to steel samples with same wall thickness, but increasing the wall thickness of the GFRP columns increased the ultimate load accordingly.