STUDY ON THE PERFORMANCE OF CFRP STRENGTHENED CIRCULAR HOLLOW STEEL SECTIONS

Ashvini, Swaminathan Subramanian

Abstract: Compared to conventional steel sections, the Steel Hollow Sections have better structural performance due to excellent properties of the tubular shape with regard to loading in compression, torsion and bending in all directions. In many structural engineering applications Hollow Sections are widely used such as airport terminal buildings, railway stations, industrial structures, etc. Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) strengthening of structures has been with success applied to concrete structures, and additionally it applied to steel structures recently. In hollow section, Steel-CFRP composite combine the benefits of the high strength to weight ratio and more ductile. This paper presents an experimental investigation carried out with two different matrix layouts of carbon fibres on the axial capacity and crushing behaviour of CFRP strengthened Circular Hollow Section (CHS). With and without CFRP wrapping the experiments were conducted on short steel columns. From the experimental studies It has been inferred that the application of CFRP to short column sections increases ductility of the section and also increases axial load carrying capacity of the section. To improve the performance of existing structures, Carbon fibre could also be with success externally bonded to metal CHS, and such application could also be provided.

Keywords: Steel Hollow Sections, Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer, axial capacity, short steel columns, ductility

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15623/ijret.2015.0406018