Effectiveness of FRP Jacketing on Strengthening of Steel Columns with Circular Hollow Sections Subjected to Axial Loads

Application of steel columns with circular hollow sections (CHS) is common in variety of structures such as bridges and building structures. These columns, provide high stiffness to cross section area ratio especially in large sizes, and are so common for use as bridge piers. The ability of these structural members to resist severe earthquakes is corresponds to their flexibility and strength, and in some case it is needed to be strengthened. Nowadays, FRP sheets are a good solution to provide desirable performance in terms of strengthening and repairing of structural members, and hence, application of FRP sheets in the past decades has been quite common in concrete structures. In the past years, the use of this method in steel structures has received lots of attentions. In the current study, the effect of using FRP sheets on strengthening of circular steel column is investigated. The response from the column and also the effectiveness of adding the FRP jacket are simulated and analyzed using nonlinear finite element numerical analysis by ABAQUS software. Different effects from FRP jacketing on the column’s response are investigated in different positions of FRP jacket and number of layers and also layer’s thickness. Results showed that FRP jacket can increase the strength and ductility of the column against axial loads. Moreover, the increase in the ductility would be higher if the jacket is placed on the bottom part of the column

Keywords:

Strengthening , Steel Column , FRP