Experimental and theoretical research on the compression performance of CFRP sheet confined GFRP short pole

The axial compressive strength of unidirectional FRP is generally quite lower than its axial tensile strength. This fact decreases the advantages of FRP as main load bearing member in engineering structure. In order to restrain the lateral expansion and splitting of GFRP, and accordingly heighten its axial compressive bearing capacity, a project that to confine GFRP pole with surrounding CFRP sheet is suggested in the present study. The Experiment on the CFRP sheet confined GFRP poles showed that a combined structure of high bearing capacity was attained. Basing on the experiment research a theoretical iterative calculation approach is suggested to predict the ultimate axial compressive stress of the combined structure, and the predicted results agree well with the experimental results. Then the influences of geometrical parameters on the ultimate axial compressive stress of the combined structure are also analyzed basing on this approach.