Date of Award

8-2009

Degree Name

MS in Civil and Environmental Engineering

Department/Program

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Advisor

Charles Chadwell

Abstract

In recent earthquakes, structures have not performed as well as expected resulting in a need for better means of retrofitting and improvements in seismic design. Fiber Reinforced Polymers (FRP), as a material with potential to increase strength and ductility of columns in conjunction with capacity design methodology, has promise for seismic design. By investigating the displacement, ductility, and flexural strength properties of FRP confined reinforced concrete circular cross sections, this study analyzes the seismic applications of FRP confinement.

The study is performed by incorporating an FRP confined concrete stress-strain model into a developed Moment-Curvature and PM Interaction software. This software conducts a comparison between traditional steel and FRP confined sections while performing parameter studies on the 28-day unconfined concrete compressive strength, longitudinal reinforcing ratio, cross section diameter, FRP confinement jacket thickness-cross section diameter ratio, and FRP confinement system design variables. These studies validate FRP’s performance for seismic applications resulting in several design recommendations to increase displacement capacity, ductility, and flexural strength and, thus, seismic performance.

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