Effects of Accelerated Seawater Corrosion on Hollow-Core FRP-Concrete-Steel Columns under Sustained Axial Load
Publication: Journal of Composites for Construction
Volume 24, Issue 3
Abstract
The hollow-core fiber-reinforced polymer-concrete-steel (HC-FCS) column is a relatively new structural system consisting of an outer fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) tube, an inner steel tube, and a concrete shell encased between the two tubes. HC-FCS columns have displayed superior structural performance compared to conventional reinforced concrete columns. However, there is a lack of experimental data on the durability of HC-FCS columns subjected to long-term saltwater exposure and elevated temperatures. This study experimentally investigates the performance of HC-FCS stubs immersed in simulated seawater solution with different elevated temperatures for up to 450 days. Sustained axial loads were also applied to the stubs during the immersion period to simulate the service load for a bridge column. After the conditioning regime, compression tests were conducted on the HC-FCS stubs. Split-disk tensile tests, scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and differential-scanning calorimetry tests were performed on the associated FRP rings for both the control and conditioned samples. The seawater immersion of the HC-FCS stubs caused resin cracks and fiber/resin interface debonding on the glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) tubes due to the swelling stresses generated by the absorbed moisture. No chemical reaction took place on the GFRP tube with seawater immersion. The normalized strengths, axial strain, hoop strain, and strength enhancement ratios of the conditioned HC-FCS cylinders continuously degraded as the immersion time and ambient temperature were increased, with the degradation of approximately 41% for 450 days of conditioning at 60°C. Using these results and the Arrhenius model, it is estimated that HC-FCS columns will display degradation up to 52% in their axial capacity during a 100-year service life if subjected to seawater at 27°C.
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Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge funding support from the U.S. Department of Transportation and the National University Transportation Center (NUTC) at Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T). The authors also wish to acknowledge the material donation from Sika Corporation. Special thanks go to Missouri S&T technicians John Bullock, Gary Abbott, Brian Swift, and Greg Leckrone, as well as former Missouri S&T students Ahmed Gheni, Sujith Anumolu, and Nicholas Colbert for their help in constructing the test setup.
Notation
The following symbols are used in this paper:
- A
- constant of the material and degradation process;
- Ac
- cross-sectional area of the concrete shell;
- As
- the cross-sectional area of the steel tube;
- Dof
- outer diameter of the GFRP tube;
- Dos
- outer diameter of the steel tube;
- Ea
- activation energy;
- EL and EH
- elastic modulus of GFRP tube in longitudinal and hoop directions;
- Es
- elastic modulus of steel;
- confined concrete stress;
- fL and fH
- ultimate tensile strength of GFRP tube in longitudinal and hoop directions;
- k
- degradation rate (1/time);
- Pc
- load carried by a concrete shell;
- Ps
- load carried by a steel tube;
- Pt
- total load carried by an HC-FCS cylinder;
- R
- universal gas constant;
- T
- Kelvin temperature;
- Tg
- glass transition temperature;
- tf
- wall thickness of the GFRP tube;
- ts
- wall thickness of the steel tube;
- ɛb
- onset buckling strain of the steel tube in the axial direction;
- ɛL and ɛH
- failure strain of the GFRP tube in longitudinal and hoop directions; and
- ɛs
- average axial strain of the steel tube.
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Information
Published In
Journal of Composites for Construction
Volume 24 • Issue 3 • June 2020
Copyright
© 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 13, 2018
Accepted: Dec 6, 2019
Published online: Apr 13, 2020
Published in print: Jun 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Sep 14, 2020
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