Concrete columns confined with fibre reinforced cementitious mortars: Experimentation and modelling

The structural behaviour of concrete columns strengthened with a system made up of fibre nets embedded in an inorganic stabilized cementitious matrix under an uniaxial load was investigated. Medium size specimens with circular and square cross-section were cast and subjected to monotonic uniaxial compression, to investigate the efficiency of a p-Phenylene BenzobisOxazole (PBO) Fibre Reinforced Cementitious Mortar (FRCM) system in increasing both strength and ductility. The experimental results show that the confinement system adopted produced a noticeable increment in strength and ductility, though the low mechanical ratios of fibre considered were not always able to ensure hardening behaviour up to rupture. Modelling of concrete confined with FRCM is presented as a rather straightforward procedure through the sum of stress contributions of the confined concrete and the mortar of the confinement system, separately.