This paper presents the results of an experimental study into the behavior of concrete-filled steel tube columns confined by fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP). Eleven columns were tested to investigate the effects of the FRP layer number, the thickness of the steel tube and concrete strength on their load capacity and axial deformation capacity. The experimental results indicated that the FRP wrap can effectively confine the concrete expansion and delay the local buckling of the steel tube. Both the load capacity and the axial deformation capacity of concrete-filled steel tube columns can be substantially enhanced with FRP confinement. A model is proposed to predict the load capacity of the FRP-confined concrete-filled steel tube columns. The predicted results are generally in good agreement with the experimental ones obtained in this study and in the literature.

Effective bonding between adherents plays a key role in retrofitting concrete structures in civil engineering using fibre-reinforced polymers (FRPs). To ensure structural safety, it is critical to develop design codes, which account for uncertainties of materials, the environment, and load, to estimate bond behaviour under long-term exposure to harsh environments. Therefore, a reliability analysis was performed to study the bond behaviour of FRP–concrete interface under wet–dry cycles and sustained loading. Thirty double-lap, shear-bonded carbon FRP (CFRP)–concrete composite specimens were tested after wet–dry cycles and sustained loading exposure. The fracture energy G_f of the bond behavior between CFRP and concrete was directly obtained from the measured local bond-slip curves. Five widely used test methods were adopted to verify the possible distribution types of G_f. Based on the best fit distribution of G_f, a reliability index β was then calculated for the specimens. The effects of wet–dry exposure and sustained loading on β were analysed separately. The effects of the mean and standard deviation of the load on β were compared. It was found that the mean had a greater impact on reliability than the standard deviation, but neither changed the regulation of the exponential reduction of β with increasing wet–dry cycle time. Their impact was significant for a small number of wet–dry cycles but insignificant for more than 4000 wet–dry cycles.

This paper presents the experimental results of steel plates strengthened with carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets under tensile load. The number of CFRP layers (ranging from one to four), strengthening schemes (single-sided and double-sided bonding), and temperatures (ranging from 25 to 120 °C) were investigated. Results showed that the number of CFRP layers and strengthening schemes had insignificant effects on failure modes of specimens. The failure modes were dominated by the degradation of resin matrix at temperatures lower than T_g + 10 or 20 °C, where T_g is the glass transition temperature, and were dominated by the volume decrease of resin matrix at temperatures above that. Through bonding CFRP sheets, the ultimate load and post-elastic stiffness of specimens were significantly increased. However, the increase in the number of CFRP layers also led to the decrease in strengthening and stiffening efficiency. The double-sided strengthened specimens showed more preferable mechanical properties than the single-sided strengthened specimens. As temperature increased, significant decreases in ultimate load and post-elastic stiffness were observed. Analytical modeling to predict the mechanical properties at ambient and elevated temperatures were conducted, respectively. The modeling results were verified by the test data.

In recent years, application of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite materials in the strengthening of existing reinforced concrete structures has gained widespread attention, but the retrofitting of metallic buildings and bridges with CFRP is still in its early stages. In real life, these structures are possibly subjected to dry and hot climate. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the bond behavior between CFRP and steel at different temperatures. To examine the bond between CFRP and steel under hot climate, a total of twenty-one double strap joints divided into 7 groups were tested to failure at constant temperatures from 27°C to 120°C in this paper. The results showed that the joint failure mode changed from debonding along between steel and adhesive interface failure to debonding along between CFRP and adhesive interface failure as the temperature increased beyond the glass transition temperature (Tg) of the adhesive. The load carrying capacity decreased significantly at temperatures approaching or exceedingTg. The interfacial fracture energy showed a similar degradation trend. Analytical models of the ultimate bearing capacity, interfacial fracture energy, and bond-slip relationship of CFRP-steel interface at elevated temperatures were presented.