BEHAVIOR OF FRP STRAPPED BEAM-COLUMNS

High strength to-weight ratio and resistance to electro-chemical corrosion have made fiber plastic FRP materials attractive to civil engineers .The confmement mechanism may include fiber-wrapping of existing columns as a retrofitting measure or providing the fiber-wrapping before loading the columns for new construction. However, the wrapping can be stripped along the column providing partial covering of the surface area of concrete. The present study provides the optimum covering of beam- columns under different loadings to fulfill an economic design of the column. The analysis of the beam-column is employed using a finite element method where the beam-column is divided into segments and each cross-section is discritised into elements. Interaction diagrams as well as axial load-midspan deflection curves are plotted for different thicknesses of polymers and for different spacings of straps along the column. The results indicate that the strength of concrete can be significantly increased by wrapping high-strength fiber composite straps around the column and a parametric study is given to easily fulfill the required loading.