The Influence of Concrete Strength and Confinement Type on the Response of FRP-Confined Concrete Cylinders

This paper describes a series of tests on concrete cylinders confined by carbon fiber jackets. The primary variables in the investigation were the thickness of the jackets (and therefore the lateral confinement stress), the size of the cylinders, the loading speed, and the loading type (monotonic vs. cyclic) and the jacket type (individual layers or continuous wrap). Of these parameters, the lateral confining stress was found to have the greatest influence, but the coefficient for the concrete used was found to be slightly lower than the 4.1 that is implicit in ACI318-02. The cylinder size, the loading speed and the cyclic loading regimes were found to have essentially no influence on stress and strain at failure. The continuously wound jackets were found to initiate failure by delamination, rather than fracture of the fiber, and to lower the stress and strain at failure.