Investigation into FRP repaired RC columns

Due to the aging of the infrastructures in the US, repair and rehabilitation of damaged steel reinforced concrete structures using fiber reinforced plastics (FRP) are increasingly becoming a topic of interest in the infrastructure community. In this study, a finite element analysis using ANSYS((R)) was utilized to conduct a parametric analysis. Experiments were also conducted to justify the finite element analysis results. A reasonable agreement was found between the finite element analysis and the test results. The effect of the thickness, stiffness, and fiber orientation of the FRP layers as well as the interfacial bonding between the FRP wraps and the concrete on the strength and stiffness of the repaired columns was evaluated using the finite element modeling. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.