Experimental and numerical investigation of the uniaxial compression behavior of SRG-Jacketed R/C columns

This paper presents an experimental and numerical investigation of Reinforced Concrete (R/C) short columns strengthened with Steel Reinforced Grout (SRG) jackets. Nine specimens were constructed and tested under concentric monotonic uniaxial compression, measuring compressive force, axial and lateral displacements. Parameters of investigation were the influence of internal steel reinforcement (i.e. no reinforcement, sparse or dense stirrups) and the number of the externally applied SRG jackets (i.e. one or two layers). Subsequently, a three-dimensional finite element methodology was developed, aiming to predict the response of those specimens. Experimental results show that the strength and deformation capacity of the specimens was significantly enhanced with the addition of the SRG jackets, since the strengthening schemes provided sufficient passive confinement. The comparison between experimental and numerical results, in terms of failure mode, axial and lateral stress–strain curves, demonstrated satisfying correlation, proving the efficiency of the proposed numerical model.