Strengthening an ageing concrete column normally means pouring a heavy jacket around it or wrapping it in costly fibre composites.
This study tests a far cheaper alternative, tightening ordinary steel hose clamps around the outside, then measures how much strength, ductility and energy absorption the method actually delivers.
Key points:
- The clamps act as passive confinement, barely changing stiffness at first but restraining the concrete core once it starts to bulge, delaying cracking and keeping the column deforming rather than failing abruptly
- Across specimens fitted with 3, 5 and 11 clamps, peak compressive strength rose by up to 77%, strain at peak strength by up to 268%, ultimate strain by up to 900% and energy dissipation by close to 2000% in the most heavily confined samples
- Nonlinear regression expressions written in the ACI 440 formulation style predict peak strength, peak strain and post-peak softening closely enough to serve as practical design estimates
This article was published in the WSSET affiliate journal, Future Cities and Environment. For more information on our affiliate journals visit: wsset.org/journals
Read the full paper here: https://cspub-fce-submission.org/index.php/fce/article/view/326