
Concrete Damaged Plasticity Model for simulation of fibre-reinforced polymer-confined concrete-filled steel tubes
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Fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP)-confined concrete-filled steel tubes (CFSTs) are a new hybrid technology that involves filling a steel tube with concrete and wrapping its outer surface with an FRP sheet. The concrete core delays inward local buckling of the steel tube, while the FRP jacket restricts outward local buckling. This combined confinement significantly enhances the compressive load-carrying capacity of the structural member, and allows the FRP outer layer to offer corrosion resistance, thereby prolonging the design life of the CFST. There is relatively limited research on FRP-confined CFSTs, with existing studies primarily focusing on the global behaviour of columns under axial compression, where the load is applied to the combined FRP-steel-concrete system. As a result, the explicit stress-strain behaviour of concrete confined by both FRP and steel has not been thoroughly investigated, and there is a lack of experimental studies and validated analytical and numerical models. Therefore, the focus of this research shifts from the global behaviour of columns as a system to the specific study of concrete confinement using finite element modelling. The development of finite element analysis models for predicting the stress-strain response of FRP-confined concrete is presented, representing a necessary step towards the advancement of the model to FRP-confined concrete filled steel tubes. A plastic-damage constitutive model for concrete is employed within the framework of the Concrete Damaged Plasticity (CDP) Model available in ABAQUS. Model validation results are presented by comparing the predicted stress-strain responses of FRP-confined concrete with experimental data. Following the validation of the FRP-confined concrete model, the development of the model is extended to FRP-confined CFSTs. The finite element modelling procedures were shown to predict the stress-strain response of concrete confined by FRP and by both FRP and steel with excellent degree of accuracy.