Effects of Small Deviations in Fiber Orientation on Compressive Characteristics of Plain Concrete Cylinders Confined with FRP Laminates

The effectiveness of concrete confinement by fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) materials is highly influenced by the orientation of fibers in the FRP laminates. In general, acceptable deviation limit from the intended direction is given as 5° in most design guidelines, without solid bases and reasoning. In this paper, a numerical study using finite element modeling was conducted to assess the effects of small deviations in fiber orientation from the hoop direction on compressive behavior of concrete cylinders confined with FRP. Different fiber angles of 0°, 2°, 5°, 8°, 10° and 15° with respect to hoop direction, unconfined concrete compressive strengths of 20, 35 and 50 MPa, FRP thicknesses of 0.2, 0.5 and 1.0 mm and FRP moduli of elasticity of 50 and 200 GPa were considered. The results showed that total dissipated energy (Et), ultimate axial strain (εcu′) and compressive strength (fcu′) exhibited the most reduction with deviation angle. For 5° deviation in fiber orientation, the average reduction in fcu′, εcu′ and Et were 2.4%, 2.8% and 4.5%, respectively. Furthermore, the calculated allowable limit of deviation in fiber orientation for a 2.5% reduction in fcu′, εcu′ and Et were 6°, 3° and 2°, respectively, with a 95% confidence.