Seismic Assessment of Concrete Column Reinforced with Fiber Reinforced Polymer and Stainless Steel Rebars

The fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) rebar is utilized as a corrosion resistive reinforcement in the structural elements like a beam, column, and slab. The FRP rebar offers excellent mechanical and durability properties, like high strength to weight ratio, high stiffness, and corrosion resistance to structures. However, a lower ductility subjected to linear-elastic behaviour, and the brittle nature of FRP particularly in the case of column applications is getting attention among researchers. Whereas stainless steel (SS) having adequate ductility, low maintenance, and resistance to corrosion make it an ideal material for reinforcing applications. To improve the performance of FRP-reinforced elements and diminish the brittle behaviour, the present research is focused on the utilization of SS rebar in the plastic hinge region of the column along with FRP rebar in rest portion of a column. This hybrid configuration is adopted here to improve the ductility and corrosion resistance capacity of the RC column. The damage concentration of the hybrid column is analysed under the effect of nonlinear static loads. The parametric analysis is performed over the hybrid column to study the behaviour of different factors under pushover loading. The results indicate that the ductility of the SS-FRP RC column is achieved under seismic loads. The study reveals that axial load, the yield strength of steel and aspect ratio significantly affect the behaviour of the SS-FRP RC column.