Reliability of Axially Loaded Fiber-Reinforced-Polymer Confined Reinforced Concrete Circular Columns

Monte-Carlo simulation based procedure was applied for assessing the reliability of Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) confined reinforced concrete columns. Assessment of reliability provides a quantitative measure of effectiveness of repair. Problem Statement: The procedure presented in the paper could be used for assessing the reliability of reinforced concrete columns before and after the application of FRP wrap, thus helping to quantitatively assess the effectiveness of repair. The equations provided in ACI 440.2R were used for formulating the reliability equations Approach: Java based computer program was developed to assess the reliability of circular concrete columns strengthened using FRP composites. The influence of diameter, thickness of wrap, longitudinal steel and elasticity modulus of wrap on reliability was studied. Results: The results indicated that the diameter of column and wrap thickness strongly influenced the reliability of columns Conclusion/Recommendations: The influence of internal steel reinforcement area and elasticity modulus of Fiber Reinforced Polymer on reliability was very limited. Computationally efficient formulation for estimating reliability was proposed. The new equation estimated reliability by up to 1575.2314 times faster than the common equation, thus resulting in the saving of time and computational power.