The Study of GFRP behavior in Confinement of Compressive Elements in Comparison with SIFCON

In this study, the experimental investigation of confinement in concrete compressive elements using Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) sheets has been conducted. Regarding the effects of concrete and fibers properties, the studied parameters include the strength of unconfined concrete core, thickness of confining layer and orientation of fibers in GFRP confining layer. The effects of these parameters on the behavior of compressive stress-strain curve, compressive strength, ultimate strain and energy absorption of confined concrete have been assessed to be used in design purposes. The final goal of this study is to compare the two methods of confining concrete columns using GFRP materials and using Slurry Infiltrated Fiber Concrete (SIFCON). Consequently, the results of compressive tests on concrete elements confined by SIFCON which were conducted by other researchers have been compared with the results of tests on GFRP confined concrete specimens. The results of this comparison show that the general behavior of stress-strain curves of concrete confined by SIFCON is different from that of GFRP confined concrete due to the significant post peak behavior of SIFCON confined concrete. SIFCON confinement method provides comparable results with GFRP confinement, considering the improvement of compressive strength and energy absorption capacity.