Compressive behaviour of CFRP-confined rectangular concrete columns

While there is abundant research on fibre reinforced polymer (FRP)-confined circular concrete columns, information on FRP-confined rectangular concrete columns is much more limited. This paper thus presents the axial compression test results of carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP)-confined concrete short columns with rectangular cross-sections. The parameters considered in this study were (a) the concrete strength; (b) the cross-sectional aspect ratio; (d) the number of CFRP layers; and (d) the corner radius. Five existing design-oriented models were used to predict the stress-strain curves of the test specimens with an aim to verify their accuracy. Considerable deviations were found between various model predictions.