Cost and Ductility Effectiveness of Concrete Columns Strengthened with CFRP and SFRP Sheets

Recently, steel fibre reinforced polymers (SFRP) sheets have been introduced for the repair and rehabilitation of concrete structures. Few researchers studied the behaviour of the concrete columns wrapped with SFRP sheets; however, several critical parameters such as the cost and ductility effectiveness of the SFRP wrapped concrete columns have been lightly addressed. Thus, the main objective of this paper is to study the cost and ductility effectiveness of SFRP wrapped concrete columns and compare the results with the conventionally used carbon FRP (CFRP) wrapped concrete columns. In addition, an analytical procedure to predict the cost effectiveness of SFRP wrapped concrete columns is also suggested, from which, a parametric study was conducted. The parametric study investigated the effect of the concrete strength, the number of SFRP layers, and the size and slenderness effects on the cost effectiveness of the concrete columns wrapped with SFRP sheets. The results from the cost and ductility effectiveness study indicated that the SFRP wrapped concrete columns showed enhanced performance over the CFRP wrapped concrete columns. The suggested analytical procedure proved to be a reliable and accurate method to predict the cost effectiveness parameter of SFRP wrapped concrete columns. The parametric study showed the significant impact of the investigated parameters on the cost effectiveness of concrete columns wrapped with SFRP sheets.