FRP-Confined Self-Compacting Concrete under

Axial Compression
Abstract

Self-compacting concrete (SCC) has become

increasingly popular in recent years, particularly in
constructing heavily reinforced concrete structures cast
with a stay-in-place form (e.g., concrete-filled tubular
columns) where the quality of concrete is difficult to
control and/or examine. When used in fiber-reinforced
polymer (FRP) tubes, the SCC is subjected to confinement
from the FRP tube. While many studies have been
conducted on confined normal concrete (NC), research on
confined SCC has been very limited. The few existing
studies on confined SCC (e.g., steel-confined SCC and FRPconfined SCC) have shown that the behavior of confined
SCC may be different from that of confined NC of the same
unconfined strength. Against this background, this paper
presents the results of a series of axial compression tests
conducted to gain a better understanding of the behavior
of FRP-confined SCC. The test variables included the
concrete strength as well as the type and thickness of the
FRP jacket. Similar to FRP-confined NC, the present tests
showed that the strength and ductility of SCC can also be
significantly enhanced by FRP confinement, and its stressstrain curve also has a bilinear shape. A comparison
between the test results and an accurate stress-strain
model developed for FRP-confined NC is also presented.
The comparison shows that the behavior of FRP-confined
SCC is generally similar to that of FRP-confined NC,
although the lateral expansion of the former appears to be
a little larger