Dilation characteristics of confined concrete

Abstract

Confinement of concrete enhances it strength and ductility by restraining lateral dilation. The accuracy of a confinement model depends on how well it captures the dilation tendency of concrete. In recent years, external confinement of concrete by fibre composites has become increasingly popular for civil infrastructure applications. This includes fibre-wrapping of existing columns or encasement of concrete in a fibre reinforced plastics (FRP) shell. A total of 54-concrete-filled FRP tubes were tested in uniaxial compression under displacement control mode. Full instrumentation of the specimens has allowed the variation of tangent Poisson's ratio for concrete to be captured. The dilation trend of confined concrete is shown to be a function of jacket stiffness. In steel-encased members, once steel yields, confining pressure becomes constant and the jacket renders itself ineffective in containing the dilation of concrete. On the other hand, for linear-elastic materials such as fibre composites, a strain reversal occurs that results in containment of dilation. A method for predicting the dilation is developed that can be easily adopted in any active confinement model. Moreover, a new confinement model for FRP-encased concrete is discussed. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.