Monotonic axial compressive behaviour and confinement mechanism of square CFRP-steel tube confined concrete

Steel tube confined concrete (STCC) is widely used in the vertical members of high-rise buildings such as columns. The axial load is not directly resisted by the steel tube in STCC, but is resisted via the interfacial frictional stress between steel tube and concrete core, which is different with that of concrete filled steel tube (CFT) members and would effectively suppress the outward local buckling of steel tube at early stage. Recently, fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) confined STCC presents a potential to enhance the ductility and durability of such vertical elements. This paper presents an experimental study on monotonic axial compressive behaviour of carbon FRP (CFRP) confined STCC (CFRP-STCC) stub column and an analytical study on the confinement mechanism of and the ultimate axial bearing capacity of the elements. A three-stage confinement mechanism involving the different contributions of the steel tube and the CFRP wrap in CFRP-STCC elements was proposed based on the test results. A prediction model of the ultimate axial bearing capacity of CFRP-STCC stub columns was developed subsequently. Results show that the presence of CFRP wrap enhances effectively the load-bearing capacity and the ductility of steel tube confined plain concrete and reinforced concrete elements, and significantly prevents the local buckling of the steel tubes in the elements. The proposed prediction model of ultimate axial bearing capacity assesses test results with a great agreement.