Structures 26 (2020) 259–270

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Structures
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/structures

A model for predicting the stress–strain relation of PVC-CFRP confined T

concrete stub columns under axial compression
⁎
Yuan Fanga, Feng Yua, , Yucong Guana, Zhongwen Wangb, Chaochao Fenga, Dongang Lia
a
Dept. of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Anhui University of Technology, Maanshan, 243032, China
b
Dept. of Civil Engineering, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, 710055, China

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: This paper presented an experimental investigation on the Polyvinyl Chloride-Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic
PVC-CFRP (PVC-CFRP) Confined Concrete (PVC-CFRP-CC) stub columns under axial compression. A total of two PVC
Confined concrete Confined Concrete (PVC-CC) columns and ten PVC-CFRP-CC columns were conducted. The effect of spacing of
Failure mode CFRP strips on mechanical behaviors of PVC-CFRP-CC stub columns was investigated. Meanwhile, the influence
Bearing capacity
on mechanical behaviors was also analyzed in terms of equivalent confining effect coefficient. Test results de-
Ultimate compressive strain
Stress–strain model
monstrated that PVC-CC stub columns failed by the buckling of PVC tube while the PVC-CFRP-CC stub columns
were damaged by the tensile fracture of CFRP strips and the cracking of PVC tube. The bearing capacity of PVC-
CFRP-CC stub columns increased gradually as the equivalent confining effect coefficient increased while the
bearing capacity decreased with the increase of spacing of CFRP strips. With the decrease of spacing of CFRP
strips or the improvement of equivalent confining effect coefficient, the confinement of PVC-CFRP tube on core
concrete enhanced, the ultimate compressive strain of the PVC tube and the ultimate tensile strain of the CFRP
strips increased. Based on a large and up-to-date test data including measured data in this study and data
collected from the literatures, a modified model for conveniently predicting the stress–strain relation of PVC-
CFRP-CC stub columns was established and verified the test data with good agreement.

1. Introduction
As discussed by Considere [1], Richart [2], Yu [3], Fang [4], Nie
[5], Xu [6], Kim [7], Han [8], and Park [9], the external confinement
can availably improve the bearing capacity and ductility of confined
concrete, such as steel spiral or steel tube. However, the durability of
steel in engineering structure is difficult to guarantee and the corrosion
of steel may reduce the bearing capacity and ductility of confined
concrete constrained by steel spiral or steel tube.
Fiber Reinforced Plastic (FRP) materials, such as Glass Fiber
Reinforced Plastic (GFRP), Aramid Fiber Reinforced Plastic (AFRP), and
Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic (CFRP), have the advantages of good
durability, light weight, high strength and convenient construction. The
FRP materials are extensively utilized in maintenance and reinforce-
ment engineering [10–15]. The existing investigations showed that
CFRP could prominently improve the bearing capacity and deformation
capacity of structures [16–21]. Shitindi [22] reported the test results of
confined concrete using FRP spirals. It was found that its performance
was similar to that of concrete confined by steel spirals, however, the
improvement of bearing capacity was not significant. Mirmiran et al.
[23,24] developed the concept of concrete filled FRP tube and per-
formed an experiment to examine the axial compressive behavior of
concrete filled FRP tube. Test results demonstrated that concrete filled
FRP tube column had high bearing capacity and good ductility. How-
ever, the cost of this new type of composite column was relative high
and the long-term stability was not very ideal. The application and
development of these concrete filled FRP tube columns were limited to
some extent. Meanwhile, some scholars [25–27] attempted to apply
cheap PVC tube to composite columns to make concrete filled PVC tube.
The experimental results revealed that the ductility of the composite
columns was good while the improvement of bearing capacity was not
distinct.
To take full advantage of FRP and PVC tube, Saafi [28] proposed a
grooved Polyvinyl Chloride-Fiber Reinforced Plastic (PVC-FRP) con-
fined concrete structure, using a PVC tube with groove wrapped around
FRP tube. Test results demonstrated that the bearing capacity and
ductility of concrete confined by grooved PVC-FRP tube were re-
markably improved. However, the construction of grooved PVC-FRP
tubes was complex and difficult, which increased the processing cost of
PVC tubes.

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: yufeng2007@ahut.edu.cn (F. Yu).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.istruc.2020.04.023
Received 13 September 2019; Received in revised form 2 February 2020; Accepted 16 April 2020
Available online 25 April 2020
2352-0124/ © 2020 Institution of Structural Engineers. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Y. Fang, et al.
Nomenclature
Af Area of CFRP strips
Ac Section area of column
Ec Elastic modulus of unconfined concrete
E2 Slope of second linear part
Efrp Elastic modulus of FRP
Ne Ultimate bearing capacity
d Diameter of circular columns
s Spacing of CFRP strips
sf Width of CFRP strip
t Thickness of FRP
σp Tensile stress of PVC strips
εp Tensile strain of PVC strips
εcc Ultimate compressive strain of concrete confined by FRP
εo Transition strain of FRP confined concrete
εco Ultimate compressive strain of unconfined concrete
εcc′ Ultimate compressive strain of PVC-CFRP-CC columns
To overcome the disadvantages (i.e. poor durability, high cost, and
low stiffness) of current confinement methods for concrete, a new type
of Polyvinyl Chloride-Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic (PVC-CFRP)
Confined Concrete (PVC-CFRP-CC) columns was proposed based on the
grooved PVC-CFRP-CC column. In this novel composite column, PVC-
CFRP tube was formed by directly winding CFRP strips on a PVC tube at
a certain spacing. PVC-CFRP tube provided an effective confinement for
the concrete filled inside. This novel composite column was mainly
applied in new buildings, which had the merits of excellent corrosion
resistance, convenient construction, reasonable price, high bearing ca-
pacity and good long-term stability. This paper presented an experi-
mental study on the mechanical performance of PVC-CFRP-CC stub
columns under axial compression. The effect of spacing of CFRP strips
on mechanical behaviors including the bearing capacity, ultimate
compressive strain of PVC tube, ultimate tensile strain of CFRP strips
and stress–strain relation of PVC-CFRP-CC columns was examined.
Meanwhile, the influence on mechanical behaviors was also analyzed in
terms of equivalent confining effect coefficient. An analytical model for
conveniently predicting the stress–strain relationship of PVC-CFRP-CC
stub columns was suggested depending on a large and up-to-date test
data including measured data in this study and collected data from the
literatures.
2. Experimental program
Two PVC Confined Concrete (PVC-CC) stub columns and ten PVC-
CFRP-CC stub columns were designed and experimentally investigated
in this study. The outer diameter of PVC tube was 200 mm and the
thickness was 7.8 mm. The length of column was 500 mm. The CFRP
Fig. 1. PVC tube and PVC-CFRP tubes.
260
Structures 26 (2020) 259–270
εl Ultimate transverse strain of PVC-CFRP-CC columns
εo′ Transition strain of PVC-CFRP-CC columns
εfrp,t FRP strips strain at transition point
ρfrp Volumetric ratio of FRP
ξ Equivalent confining effect coefficient
kg Confining effect coefficient of CFRP strips
fcc Ultimate compressive strength of concrete confined by
FRP
fcc′ Ultimate compressive stress of PVC-CFRP-CC columns
fo Transitional stress at transition strain of concrete confined
by FRP
fo′ Transitional stress at transition strain of PVC-CFRP-CC
columns
fl Lateral confining stress
f30 Concrete strength of unconfined C30 grade concrete
fco Concrete strength of unconfined concrete
ffrp Tensile strength of FRP
strips width was 20 mm. The thickness of a single layer of the used
CFRP strip was 0.111 mm, and three layers of the CFRP strips were
employed for the PVC-CFRP-CC columns. To prevent early failure of
column ends, four layers of CFRP strips were utilized at each end.
Impregnating adhesive was used to bond the layers of CFRP strips. The
tensile strength, bending strength and compressive strength of the ad-
hesive were 47 MPa, 80 MPa and 71 MPa, respectively. The elongation
and the elastic modulus of the adhesive were 3.4% and 2590 MPa, re-
spectively. Different spacings of CFRP strips, such as 20 mm, 30 mm,
40 mm, 50 mm, and 60 mm, were investigated, as shown in Fig. 1. More
details were listed in Table 1 [29–30].
According to the test results, the average ultimate tensile strength of
CFRP strips was 3612 MPa and the average compressive strength of
concrete was 28.5 MPa, as listed in Table 2. Three PVC tensile coupon
were prepared and tested in this study, as shown in Fig. 2. The average
tensile strength of PVC was 62 MPa and the necking phenomenon was
obvious before the failure of PVC. The corresponding stress–strain curve
of the tensile coupon was depicted in Fig. 3. To further determine the
mechanical properties of the PVC tube, the experiment of the hollow
PVC tube under axial compression was also performed and the PVC
Tube eventually failed by the buckling, as depicted in Fig. 4. The
compressive strength of PVC tube was 68 MPa.
The experiment was conducted using a 5000 kN hydraulic servo
testing machine. Multi-stage loading was employed in this experiment.
Load increment of each step was 10% of predicted ultimate strength of
the composite column, and loading rate was 50 kN/min. When the load
reached about 90% of predicted ultimate strength, a continuous loading
(displacement-controlled) scheme was adopted and the loading rate
was changed to 0.5 mm/min. The axial and transverse strains were
Y. Fang, et al. Structures 26 (2020) 259–270

Table 1
Parameters of specimens and experimental data.
Specimen Spacing of CFRP strips ξ Ne (kN) ′
εcc εl
number (mm)

A-PVC-1 – – 995.8 0.0346 0.0197

A-PVC-2 – – 972.3 0.0248 0.0198
A-Cs20-1 20 0.836 1812.4 0.0162 0.0122
A-Cs20-2 20 0.836 1756.8 0.0182 0.0114
A-Cs30-1 30 0.558 1464.2 0.0158 0.0124
A-Cs30-2 30 0.558 1552 0.0159 0.0125
A-Cs40-1 40 0.418 1406.7 0.0144 0.0121
A-Cs40-2 40 0.418 1368.8 0.0149 0.0124
A-Cs50-1 50 0.335 1272.6 0.0136 0.0118
A-Cs50-2 50 0.335 1279.5 0.0134 0.0109
A-Cs60-1 60 0.279 1261.1 0.0132 0.0101
A-Cs60-2 60 0.279 1327.2 0.0126 0.0115
Fig. 4. Failure mode of PVC tube.
Note: ‘A-PVC-1′ and ‘A-PVC-2′ represent two stub PVC columns without
strengthened with CFRP strips, and these two specimens are with the same
determined at four positions around the perimeter at mid-height of
parameters. ‘A-CsX-1′ and ‘A-CsX-2′ represent two stub PVC columns
PVC-CC column by eight strain gauges, as shown in Fig. 5 (a). Four
strengthened with CFRP strips, and these two specimens are with the same
strain gauges were arranged in the axial direction of PVC tube, and
parameters. ‘-CsX’ stands for the spacing of CFRP strips, ‘-1′ and ‘-2′ represent
the numbers of specimens with the same parameters. For example, ‘A-Cs20-1′ another four strain gauges were attached along the longitudinal direc-
indicates stub PVC column strengthened with CFRP strips, and the spacing of tion of CFRP strips at mid-height of PVC-CFRP-CC columns, as shown in
CFRP strips is 20 mm. ξ stands for the equivalent confining effect coefficient, Ne Fig. 5(b).
represents the ultimate bearing capacity, εc′ and εl denote the ultimate com-
pressive strain and ultimate transverse strain of composite columns, respec-
tively.
3. Experimental results

3.1. Failure mode

Table 2
Mechanical properties of specimens.
Two different failure modes of PVC-CC stub columns and PVC-
Material Elastic modulus (MPa) Ultimate strength (MPa)
CFRP-CC stub columns were observed, as demonstrated in Fig. 6. PVC-
CFRP(Tension) 224,000 3612 CC column was characterized by the buckling of PVC tube while PVC-
Concrete(Compression) 19,400 28.5 CFRP-CC column was distinguished by the fracture of CFRP strips and
PVC (Tension) 3160 62 cracking of PVC tube.
PVC (Compression) 68
For PVC-CC columns, initially, no obvious phenomenon was found
as specimen was in elastic stage (within 45% of the ultimate bearing
capacity). As load increased, the axial and traverse deformation in-
creased gradually. PVC-CC column came into the stage of crack de-
velopment and core concrete expanded gradually. Subsequently, the
color of PVC tube became white at the middle-upper part of PVC-CC
column. The occasional crack of concrete could be heard. Eventually,
specimens failed by the buckling of PVC tube and no cracking phe-
nomenon on PVC tube was observed, as demonstrated in Fig. 6 (f).
For PVC-CFRP-CC columns with small spacing of CFRP strips (i.e.,
Fig. 2. Failure mode of PVC strips.
A-Cs20, A-Cs30, and A-Cs40), at the initial loading of stage, the axial
and transverse deformation of core concrete were extremely small. The
compressive strain of PVC tube and tensile strain of CFRP strips de-
veloped slowly. After the compressive strength reached the ultimate
compressive strength of core concrete, both the compressive strain of
PVC tube and tensile strain of the CFRP strips increased obviously with
the increase of load. The confining effect of PVC-CFRP tube, which
could prevent the cracking of the core concrete, became more promi-
nent. After the compressive strength reached 85%-90% of ultimate
bearing capacity of PVC-CFRP-CC column, a distinct intermittent sound
caused by the fracture of CFRP strips could be heard. Finally, PVC-
CFRP-CC columns failed by the fracture of CFRP strips and the cracking
of PVC tubes when specimens reached the ultimate bearing capacity.
PVC-CFRP-CC columns with small spacing of CFRP strips showed ob-
vious signs of fracture before reaching the ultimate bearing capacity.
Several CFRP strips produced intermittent cracking sounds, which be-
came more pronounced the closer the specimen came to failure.
For PVC-CFRP-CC columns with large spacing of CFRP strips (i.e., A-
Fig. 3. Stress–strain curve of PVC strips. Cs50 and A-Cs60), the test process of specimens was similar to that of
the composite columns with small spacing of CFRP strips. However,
specimen reached the ultimate bearing capacity the moment the CFRP
strips was broken. There was no significant sign of fracture before
specimen reaching the ultimate bearing capacity. According to the test

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Y. Fang, et al. Structures 26 (2020) 259–270

Fig. 5. Arrangement of strain gauges on the composite columns.

results, multiple CFRP strips were broken when specimen A-Cs20-1 or
A-Cs30-1 was damaged, two CFRP strips were broken in specimen A-
Cs50-1 or A-Cs60-1 while only one CFRP strip was broken in specimen
A-Cs40-1. All PVC-CFRP-CC columns showed PVC tube rupture, the
specific fracture locations were depicted in Fig. 6.
3.2. Bearing capacity
Table 1 listed the ultimate bearing capacity of PVC-CC columns and
PVC-CFRP-CC columns. Obviously, using CFRP to strengthen PVC-CC
columns could significantly improve the bearing capacity of the speci-
mens. In addition, the ultimate bearing capacity of PVC-CFRP-CC col-
umns increased as spacing of CFRP strips decreased, as shown in Fig. 7.
Take specimens A-PVC-1, A-Cs60-1 and A-Cs20-1 as example, the ul-
timate bearing capacity of A-Cs60-1 was 26.6% higher than that of A-
PVC-1, and the ultimate bearing capacity of A-Cs20-1 was 43.7% higher
than that of A-Cs60-1. This may come from that the increase in spacing
of CFRP strips weakened the confinement effect of PVC-CFRP tube and

Fig. 6. Failure modes of PVC-CC column and PVC-CFRP-CC columns.

262
Y. Fang, et al.
Fig. 7. Effect of spacing of CFRP strips on ultimate bearing capacity.
correspondingly decreased the compressive strength of core concrete.
The experimental results showed that PVC-CFRP tube had great
influence on the confinement of column. If there was no PVC tube and
CFRP strips were directly wound on the concrete column, the con-
finement of CFRP strips on concrete was uneven. The concrete between
CFRP strips was damaged in advance, and the increase of bearing ca-
pacity was much smaller than that of the concrete confined by PVC-
CFRP tube. Therefore, the function of PVC tube could not be ignored. It
could evenly transfer the confining force of CFRP strips on column,
significantly improve the confinement effect of CFRP strips and effec-
tively enhance the overall mechanical performances of the composite
column. In this study, it was assumed that the confinement effect of
CFRP strips on the column was uniform and PVC tube was regarded as a
force transfer medium. To simplify the analysis, the confining stress of
PVC-CFRP tube on column was simplified as that of CFRP strips, and the
compressive stress of PVC-CFRP tube was simplified as that of PVC
tube. To facilitate the analysis of mechanical performance of PVC-
CFRP-CC columns, an equivalent confining effect coefficient of PVC-
CFRP-CC columns was introduced, as shown in Eq (1). It was worth
noting that the equivalent confining effect coefficient in this study was
mainly related to the spacing of CFRP strips.
Af ff
ξ = kg
Ac fco
In which, ξ represented the equivalent confining effect coefficient of
PVC-CFRP-CC columns, ff was the ultimate tensile strength of CFRP
strips, Af was the area of CFRP strips, Ac was the section area of
column, fco was the ultimate compressive strength of unconfined con-
crete and kg was the confining effect coefficient of CFRP strips, which
could be defined as follows.
sf
kg =
s (2)
where sf represented the width of CFRP strip, s denoted the spacing of
CFRP strips, and s ⩾ sf .
Fig. 8 showed the effect of equivalent confining effect coefficient ξ
on ultimate bearing capacity of PVC-CFRP-CC columns. Obviously, test
results indicated that the influence of equivalent confinement effect
coefficient ξ on PVC-CFRP-CC columns was consistent with that of or-
dinary confined filled steel tube. With the increase of the equivalent
confining effect coefficient ξ , the ultimate bearing capacity of PVC-
CFRP-CC columns increased gradually.
3.3. Ultimate compressive strain of PVC tube
The effect of spacing of CFRP strips on the ultimate compressive
strain of PVC tube was depicted in Fig. 9. Apparently, the ultimate
compressive strain of PVC tube increased as spacing of CFRP strips
decreased. This was mainly because the core concrete was in a state of
triaxial stress under the transverse constraint of PVC-CFRP tube. The
improved confinement was conducive to delaying the development of
Structures 26 (2020) 259–270
internal cracks in core concrete.
Fig. 10 illustrated the influence of equivalent confining effect
coefficient ξ of PVC-CFRP-CC columns on the ultimate compressive
strain of PVC tube. It could be seen that the ultimate compressive strain
was approximate linear to the equivalent confining effect coefficient ξ .
With the increase of equivalent confining effect coefficient ξ , the ulti-
mate compressive strain of PVC tube increased gradually.
To further analyze the confining effect of PVC-CFRP tube on im-
proving the ultimate compressive strain of PVC-CFRP-CC columns, the
effect of spacing of CFRP strips on the ratio of the ultimate compressive
strain of PVC tube and the ultimate compressive strain of unconfined
concrete εcc′ εco (εco = 0.002 ) was also depicted in Fig. 11. Test results
indicated that the value of εcc′ εco was between 6.3 and 9.1, showing that
the PVC-CFRP tube exerted a remarkable confinement on core concrete.
Apparently, εcc′ εco gradually decreased as the spacing of CFRP strips
increased.
3.4. Ultimate tensile strain of CFRP strips
As shown in Fig. 12, the ultimate tensile strain of CFRP strips in-
creased as spacing of CFRP strips decreased. For example, the ultimate
tensile strain of CFRP strips of A-Cs20-1 was 22.7% higher than that of
A-Cs60-1. Obviously, the effect of equivalent confining effect coefficient
ξ on ultimate tensile strain of CFRP strips was similar to that on ulti-
mate compressive strain of PVC tube. The increase in equivalent con-
fining effect coefficient ξ gradually increased the ultimate tensile strain
of CFRP strips, as shown in Fig. 13.
3.5. Stress–strain curve of the composite column
According to the experimental results, the stress–strain relationship
of PVC-CC columns and PVC-CFRP-CC columns with different spacings
of CFRP strips could be acquired, as shown in Fig. 14. In which, σc
represented the compressive stress of composite column, εc and εcl de-
noted the the compressive strain and transverse strain of composite
column, respectively. For PVC-CC columns, εc and εcl were determined
by the axial and transverse strains at mid-height of PVC-CC column (see
(1) Fig. 5(a)). For PVC-CFRP-CC column, the transverse confinement of the
PVC-CFRP-CC column was mainly provided by the CFRP strips, the
transverse strain of the composite column was approximately con-
sidered as the tensile strain of CFRP strips. Besides, the test results
demonstrated that there was no slip between PVC-CFRP tube and
concrete during the test, and the compressive strain of the composite
column was approximately considered as the compressive strain of PVC
tube. Therefore, in this study, the measured compressive strain of PVC
tube and tensile strain of CFRP strips were employed to represent the
compressive strain and transverse strain of the composite column, re-
spectively.
Fig. 8. Effect of equivalent confining effect coefficient on ultimate bearing
capacity.
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Y. Fang, et al. Structures 26 (2020) 259–270

Fig. 9. Effect of spacing of CFRP strips on ultimate compressive strain of PVC

Fig. 13. Effect of equivalent confining effect coefficient on ultimate tensile
tube.
strain of CFRP strips

Apparently, the stress–strain curve of PVC-CFRP-CC column was

Fig. 10. Effect of equivalent confining effect coefficient on ultimate compres-
sive strain of PVC tube.
approximately composed of two-stage. Initially, the transverse expan-
sion of core concrete in PVC-CFRP-CC columns was not obvious when
the axial compressive stress was lower than the ultimate compressive
strength of PVC-CC columns, and the stress–strain relationship of PVC-
CFRP-CC columns was similar to that of PVC-CC columns. The reason
was that the confinement effect was too small to affect the mechanical
behaviors of specimen. When the axial compressive stress of PVC-CFRP-
CC columns exceeded the ultimate compressive strength of PVC-CC
columns, the compressive strain and transverse strain of composite
columns increased rapidly as the compressive stress increased. An ob-
vious inflection point appeared on the stress–strain curve. The stress
and strain were then approximate linear (the linear strengthening
stage) until the fracture of CFRP strips. The slope of stress–strain curves
decreased as spacing of CFRP strips increased.

4. A model for predicting the stress–strain relation of PVC-CFRP-

CC column

4.1. Previous models of FRP confined concrete (FRP-CC) columns

Currently, many scholars have conducted theoretical and experi-

mental studies on FRP-CC columns, and correspondingly several models
have been proposed to describe the stress–strain relationship of FRP-CC
columns. Binici[31] and Saiidi[32] proposed a bi-linear model for
predicting the stress–strain relationship of FRP-CC columns. Attard and
Setunge[33], Kwan[34] introduced a single equation to reflect the
stress–strain behavior of FRP-CC columns. Other scholars [35–40] put
forward the stress–strain models composed of a parabola and a straight
Fig. 11. Effect of spacing of CFRP strips on εcc′ εco
line depending on a large number of experimental data, as shown in
Fig. 15.

4.1.1. Wei’s model

Similar to the above scholars, Wei [39] proposed a model to predict
the stress–strain relationship of FRP-CC columns. The model was
composed of two parts, the first part was a parabola, and the second
part was a straight line. The model had two features: (1) The slope at
εc = 0 was the elastic modulus of unconfined concrete. (2) The slope of
two parts at the transition point was the same. The specific model was
listed as follows.

(f − E ε )
⎧ Ec εc + o 2c o εc2 (0 ⩽ εc < εo)
σc = εo
⎨ f + E (ε − ε ) (ε ⩽ ε < ε )
⎩ o 2 c o o c cc (3)

Fig. 12. Effect of spacing of CFRP strips on ultimate tensile strain of CFRP strips (fo + fcc + Ec εcc ) − (fo + fcc + Ec εcc)2 − 8fo Ec εcc
εo =
2Ec (4)

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Y. Fang, et al. Structures 26 (2020) 259–270

Fig. 14. Stress–strain curves of PVC-CFRP-CC columns with different spacing of CFRP strips

Table 4
Comparison between predicted values and experimental data of ultimate strain.
Specimen number εcc,e εcc, εcc, εcc, εcc, c1 εcc, c2 εcc, c3
c1 c2 c3
εcc, e εcc, e εcc, e

A-Cs20-1 0.0162 0.0144 0.0171 0.0136 0.887 1.057 0.840

A-Cs20-2 0.0182 0.0144 0.0171 0.0136 0.790 0.941 0.747
A-Cs30-1 0.0158 0.0144 0.0171 0.0136 0.909 1.084 0.861
A-Cs30-2 0.0159 0.0144 0.0171 0.0136 0.904 1.077 0.855
A-Cs40-1 0.0144 0.0144 0.0171 0.0136 0.998 1.189 0.944
A-Cs40-2 0.0149 0.0144 0.0171 0.0136 0.964 1.149 0.913
A-Cs50-1 0.0136 0.0144 0.0171 0.0136 1.057 1.259 1.000
A-Cs50-2 0.0134 0.0144 0.0171 0.0136 1.072 1.278 1.015
A-Cs60-1 0.0132 0.0144 0.0171 0.0136 1.089 1.297 1.030
A-Cs60-2 0.0126 0.0144 0.0171 0.0136 1.140 1.359 1.079
Average value – – 0.981 1.169 0.928
Standard deviation – – 0.110 0.131 0.104

Fig. 15. Stress–strain relationship of FRP-CC columns confined by FRP.

In this model, three parameters need to be calculated to determine
Table 3 the stress–strain curve of specimens, namely fcc , εcc and fo . As for cir-
Comparisons between the predicted values and experimental data of ultimate cular concrete column confined by FRP, the aforementioned three
stress. parameters could be determined by Eqs.(6–10), which were fitted by
the regression analysis of a large number of experimental data.
Specimen number fcc,e fcc,c1 fcc,c2 fcc,c3 fcc,c1 fcc,c2 fcc,c3
fcc,e fcc,e fcc,e 0.73
fcc f
= 0.5 + 2.7 × ⎜⎛ l ⎟⎞
A-Cs20-1 57.72 55.24 50.07 68.86 0.957 0.867 1.193 fco f
⎝ co ⎠ (6)
A-Cs20-2 55.95 55.24 50.07 68.86 0.987 0.895 1.231
A-Cs30-1 46.63 55.24 50.07 68.86 1.185 1.074 1.477 0.75 0.62
A-Cs30-2 49.43 55.24 50.07 68.86 1.118 1.013 1.393 εcc f
= 1.75 + 12 × ⎜⎛ l ⎞⎟ ⎛⎜ f30 ⎞⎟
A-Cs40-1 44.80 55.24 50.07 68.86 1.233 1.118 1.537 εco ⎝ fco ⎠ ⎝ fco ⎠ (7)
A-Cs40-2 43.59 55.24 50.07 68.86 1.267 1.149 1.580
A-Cs50-1 40.53 55.24 50.07 68.86 1.363 1.235 1.699
A-Cs50-2 40.75 55.24 50.07 68.86 1.356 1.229 1.690
εco = 0.000937 4 fco (8)
A-Cs60-1 40.16 55.24 50.07 68.86 1.375 1.247 1.715
A-Cs60-2 42.27 55.24 50.07 68.86 1.307 1.184 1.629 fo = fco + 0.43 × fl (9)
Average value – – 1.215 1.101 1.514
Standard deviation – – 0.144 0.138 0.189 2ffrp t
fl =
d (10)
fcc − fo In which, fl was the lateral confining stress, f30 was the concrete
E2 =
εcc − εo (5) strength of unconfined C30 grade concrete, fco was the concrete
strength of unconfined concrete, ffrp was the tensile strength of FRP, t
where σc and εc were the compressive stress and the compressive strain was the thickness of FRP, d was the diameter of circular columns.
of the column, respectively. εo was the transition strain which was de-
termined based on the condition that the slope was the same at inter- 4.1.2. Youssef’ s model
section of two parts. fo was the corresponding transitional stress. Ec was Youssef’s model [40] held that FRP had no confined effect at the
the elastic modulus of unconfined concrete, E2 was the slope of second initial stage of the stress–strain curve, and the development path of
linear part. fcc was the ultimate compressive strength of concrete con- FRP-CC columns was the same as that of unconfined concrete columns.
fined by FRP, εcc was the ultimate compressive strain of concrete After exceeding the compressive strength of unconfined concrete, the

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Fig.16. Comparison between the theoretical values and test data

Table 5
′ fco
Comparisons between the experimental results and predicted values of fcc
′ εco .
and εcc

Reference Specimen number ′ fco

fcc ′ εco
εcc

AV SD AV SD

Yu (This study) 10 0.942 0.041 0.998 0.042

Saafi [28] 14 0.989 0.101 1.002 0.179
Zhu [43] 9 1.074 0.048 0.862 0.058
Wang [44] 5 0.969 0.057 0.977 0.062

n−1

σc = ⎣
(
⎧ Ec εc ⎡1 - 1 1 − E2 εc
n Ec εo )( )⎤ (0 ⩽ εc < εo)
⎦
⎨
⎩ fo + E2 (εc − εo) (εo ⩽ εc < εcc ) (11)

(Ec − E2 ) εo
Fig. 17. Relationship between fcc′ fco and the equivalent confining effect coef- n=
ficient ξ
Ec εo − fo (12)
5
fcc f 4
= 1.0 + 2.25 × ⎜⎛ l ⎟⎞
fco f
⎝ co ⎠ (13)

1
f ffrp ⎞ 2
εcc = 0.003368 + 0.2590 ⎜⎛ l ⎟⎞ ⎜⎛ ⎟
⎝ fco ⎠ ⎝ Efrp ⎠ (14)
5
fo ρfrp Efrp εfrp,t ⎞ 4
= 1.0 + 3.0 ⎜⎛ ⎟
fco ⎝ fco ⎠ (15)

6 1
ρfrp Efrp εfrp,t ⎞ 7 ⎛ ffrp ⎞ 2
εo = 0.002748 + 0.1169 ⎜⎛ ⎟ ⎜ ⎟
⎝ fco ⎠ ⎝ Efrp ⎠ (16)

4t
ρfrp =
d (17)

ffrp
Fig. 18. Relationship between εcc′ εco and the equivalent confining effect coef- fl = ρfrp
2 (18)
ficient ξ
Where Efrp was the elastic modulus of FRP, εfrp,t was the strain of
FRP strips at transition from first to second region εfrp,t = 0.02 . ρfrp was
concrete dilated and FRP strips started to confine the concrete. At the
the volumetric ratio of FRP.
second straight line stage, the FRP strips was fully activated and the
confining stress continued to increase until the failure of specimen. The
stress–strain model could be expressed as follows. 4.1.3. Kwan’ model
On the basis of Attard and Setunge [33] and Xiao [41], Kwan [34] also established a
model for conveniently estimating the stress-strain relationship of FRP-CC columns. In Kwan’s
model, the ultimate stress and the corresponding ultimate strain could be obtained by the
formulas derived by Xiao [41]. The specific model was expressed as follows.

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′ fco and εcc

Fig. 19. Comparisons between the experimental results and predicted values of fcc ′ εco by the proposed models

compressive stress and ultimate strain of PVC-CFRP-CC columns be-

cause the effect of PVC tube and the spacing of FRP strips were not
considered. For three models, the maximum average deviation of the
ultimate stress reached 1.514, and the maximum average deviation of
the ultimate strain reached 1.169. Therefore, it’s essential to establish a
new model for predicting the stress–strain relationship of PVC-CFRP-CC
columns.

4.3. A stress–strain model of PVC-CFRP-CC columns

Through a lot of comparative analysis [35–40,42], it was not diffi-

cult to find that the determination of three parameters such as the
transitional stress fo , the ultimate stress fcc and the ultimate strain εcc was
very crucial to the prediction of the stress–strain of composite columns.
In this study, on the basis of Wei’s model [39] and considering the effect
Fig. 20. Relationship between ν and ξ of spacing of CFRP strips, these three parameters were modified to
develop the stress–strain model of PVC-CFRP-CC columns.
σc A (εc εcc ) + B (εc εcc )2
⎧ Ec εc + ′o 2c ′o εc2
(f − E ε )
= (0 ⩽ εc < ε′o)
fcc 1 + (A − 2)(εc εcc ) + (B + 1)(εc εcc )2 (19) σc = ε′o
⎨ f ′ + E (ε − ε′ ) (ε′o ⩽ εc < ε′cc )
Ec εcc ⎩ o 2 c o (24)
A=
fcc (20)
(f ′o + f ′cc + Ec ε′cc ) − (f ′o + f ′cc + Ec ε′cc )2 − 8f ′o Ec ε′cc
εo′ =
(A − 1)2 2Ec (25)
B= −1
0.55 (21)
f ′cc − f ′o
fcc fco = 1 + 3.24(fl fco )0.8 (22) E2 =
ε′cc − ε′o (26)
εcc εco = 1 + 17.4(fl fco )1.06 (23) The corresponding transitional stress of PVC-CFRP-CC column fo′
could be estimated by Eq. (27), where the effect of spacing of CFRP
strips on PVC-CFRP-CC columns was considered.
4.2. Models of evaluation
fo′ = fco + 0.43 × kg fl (27)
In this section, the accuracy of aforementioned three models for
predicting the stress-stain relation of PVC-CFRP-CC columns was eval- In which, kg represented the confining effect coefficient of CFRP
uated. The comparisons between the results predicted by different strips mentioned above.
models and experimental data were shown in Tables and 3, 4 and According to the test results, the ultimate compressive stress of PVC-
Fig. 16. In which, fcc,e and εcc,e represented the measured ultimate stress CFRP-CC columns fcc′ and ultimate compressive strain of PVC-CFRP-CC
and ultimate strain of specimen in this study, respectively. fcc,c1 and columns εcc′ were very related to the equivalent confining effect coeffi-
εcc, c1denoted the ultimate stress and ultimate strain predicted by Wei’s cient ξ . Therefore, the equivalent confining effect coefficient ξ was se-
model, respectively. fcc,c2 and εcc, c2 indicated the ultimate stress and lected as the parameter and the regression analysis of a large and up-to-
ultimate strain predicted by Youssef’s model, respectively. fcc,c3 and date test data including measured data in this study and data collected
εcc, c3 represented the ultimate stress and ultimate strain predicted by from the literatures [28,43–44] was conducted, as shown in Fig. 17 and
Kwan’s model, respectively. Fig. 18. The modified formula of the ultimate compressive stress and
According to the above comparisons, obviously, the mentioned the ultimate compressive strain of PVC-CFRP-CC columns were as fol-
models were not very satisfactory for estimating the ultimate lows

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Y. Fang, et al. Structures 26 (2020) 259–270

Fig. 21. Comparisons between the predicted stress–strain curve of PVC-CFRP-CC columns and the measured test data

f ′cc proposed models could accurately predict the ultimate compressive

= 2.086(ξ )0.25
fco (28) stress and the ultimate compressive strain of the composite columns.
Additionally, the compressive stress-transverse strain relationship of
ε′cc PVC-CFRP-CC columns was also proposed in this study based on the
= 8.705(ξ )0.2051
εco (29) experimental study. An analytical model for conveniently predicting
To assess the adaptability of the proposed models, the comparisons the compressive stress-transverse strain relationship of PVC-CFRP-CC
between the experimental results and predicted values of fcc′ fco and columns could be expressed as follows.
′ εco were shown in Table 5 and Fig. 19. In which, AV represented the
εcc
⎧ Ecl εcl + ′o 2cl ′ol εcl2 (0 ⩽ εcl < ε′ol )
f −E ε
mean of the ratio of the experimental results to the predicted value of σc = ε ′
ol
fcc′ fco (εcc′ εco ). SD denoted the standard deviation of the ratio of the ⎨ f ′ + E (ε − ε′ ) (ε′ ⩽ ε < ε )
⎩ o 2l cl ol ol cl l (30)
experimental results to the predicted value of fcc′ fco (εcc ′ εco ).
(f ′cc fco ) T and (ε′cc εco ) T indicated the test values, (f ′cc fco )P and εol′ = νc εo′ (31)
(ε′cc εco )P represented the predicted results. It was apparent that the

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In which, Ecl = Ec νc , νc was Poisson's ratio of concrete,
εcl represented the transitional strain, E2l = E2 ν , and ν was determined
by the regression analysis of experimental data, as shown in Eq. (32)
and Fig. 20.
ν = 0.6741ξ (−0.5742)
The comparisons between the predicted stress-strain curves and the measured test data
were depicted in Fig. 21. Obviously, the above modified stress-strain relation model was in
good agreement with test data and had a high accuracy.
5. Conclusions
A total of two PVC-CC stub columns and ten PVC-CFRP-CC stub
columns under axial compression were experimentally investigated,
and the effect of spacing of CFRP strips and equivalent confining effect
coefficient were considered in this study. The following conclusions
could be drawn.
(1) PVC confined concrete stub columns failed by the buckling of PVC
tube while the PVC-CFRP confined concrete stub columns were
damaged by the tensile fracture of the CFRP strips and the cracking
of PVC tube.
(2) The bearing capacity of PVC-CFRP-CC stub columns increased
gradually as the equivalent confining effect coefficient increased
while the bearing capacity decreased as the spacing of CFRP strips
increased. The average ultimate bearing capacity of composite
columns strengthened with 20-mm spacing of CFRP strips was
37.9% and 81.4% higher than that of the composite columns
strengthened with 60-mm spacing of CFRP strips and columns
without strengthened with CFRP strips.
(3) With the decrease of spacing of CFRP strips or the increase of
equivalent confining effect coefficient, the confinement of PVC-
CFRP tube on core concrete enhanced, the ultimate compressive
strain of PVC tube and the ultimate tensile strain of CFRP strips
increased. The average ultimate compressive strain of PVC tube and
the average ultimate tensile strain of CFRP strips increased by
33.3% and 9.2% when the spacing of CFRP strips decreased from
60 mm to 20 mm.
(4) The stress–strain curve of PVC-CFRP-CC stub columns approxi-
mately consisted of two stages. Generally, the first stage of
stress–strain relationship was similar to that of PVC-CC stub col-
umns. The second stage of stress–strain relationship was the linear
strengthening stage and the slope of stress–strain curve decreased
as spacing of CFRP strips increased.
(5) On the basis of a large and up-to-date test data including the
measured data in this study and data collected from the literatures,
a modified model for conveniently predicting the stress–strain re-
lationship of PVC-CFRP-CC stub columns was established. The
predictions of the proposed model were in good agreement with test
data.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influ-
ence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of
China (No. 51878002, No. 51578001, No. 51608003 and No.
51008001), China; Natural Science Foundation granted by Department
of Education, Anhui Province (No. KJ2015ZD10), China; Key Research
and Development Plan of Anhui Province (No. 1704a0802131), China;
Collaborative Innovation Project of Colleges and Universities of Anhui
Structures 26 (2020) 259–270
Province (No. GXXT-2019-005), China; and the Outstanding Young
Talent Support Program of Anhui Province (No. gxyqZD2016072),
China.
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