STRUCTURAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CONCRETE-FILLED GLASS FIBER REINFORCED COMPOSITE PILES

ABSTRACT

Concrete-filled glass fiber reinforced polymer piles(GFRP piles) have been introduced to overcome the corrosion problems associated with concrete and steel piles under severe environments. Benefits of composite piles include high durability, high confined strength, low maintenance cost, high ductility, and long expected service life. Current research has been carried out to examine material and structural characteristics of GFRP piles. It includes the compression test for short-length composite tubes, axial-flexure test under various load combinations, buckling test with several different slenderness ratios. Besides, large-scale piles were tested to investigate the flexural and bond characteristics. Experiments showed that the inside spirals increase the bond and improve the whole flexure behavior. Numerical procedure to construct P-M diagrams for composite piles were also developed and the results were compared with experiments. Present study will demonstrate the applicability of concrete-filled glass fiber reinforced composite piles as an alternative to conventional steel or concrete piles in corrosive environments, and provide an experimental database about the multidirectionally reinforced composite piles.

Keywords 

GFRP, Composite pile, Glass fiber, Flexure-Compression test, Slenderness