Stress–strain response and practical design expressions for FRP-confined recycled tyre rubber concrete

Abstract This paper presents an experimental programme on the response of fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) confined circular rubberised concrete (RuC) members in compression. After describing the constituent materials and testing arrangement, a detailed account of the complete stress–strain response of FRP-confined high strength conventional concrete materials (CCM) and RuC in uniaxial compression is provided. The parameters directly investigated through experimental assessment are the rubber content, namely 30% and 60% by volume of both fine and coarse aggregates, and the number of confinement layers which varies from 0 to 4. Experimental observations indicate that the confined compressive strength typically increases in a largely proportional manner with the unconfined compressive strength, whilst the confined axial strain at ultimate tends to increase with the rubber content. Confined-to-unconfined strength ratios above 9 and confined ultimate strain-to-unconfined crushing strain ratios above 40, are obtained for concrete with 60% rubber and four layers of confinement. These values are higher by factors of about 3.2 and 4.5 in comparison to the conventional reference concrete, respectively. The test results and observations enable the development of a series of design expressions to estimate the stress–strain response of circular RuC specimens passively confined with FRP sheets, with due account for the influence of rubber content. Validations performed against the material tests carried out in this paper, as well as those from previous studies on RuC and CCM with FRP confinement, indicate that the proposed expressions offer reliable predictions of the mechanical properties of FRP-confined members.