Seismic performance of RC columns retrofitted with CFRP Strips

Reinforced concrete columns of the rail-way structures were severely damaged at 1995 Hyogoken-Nanbu earthquake. Observed main damage patterns in the reinforced concrete structures were shear failures of the columns with poor arrangements of the lateral reinforcement. For those columns, confinement of the column sections is effective to improve the ductility of the columns in avoiding the brittle failure. Authors proposed spacing the carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) strips for the retrofitting of those columns. This paper presents the seismic performance of reinforced concrete columns retrofitted with CFRP strips comparing with those of the columns with CFRP sheet. In this research program, seismic loading tests were performed using scaled reinforced concrete columns in the laboratory of the Hiroshima University. From test results, The columns retrofitted with CFRP strips showed the very good performance as same as CFRP sheet. Moreover, it is anticipated that there is strong possibility of decreasing the amount of CFRP.