Experimental investigation on axial compressive strength of lateral impact damaged short steel columns repaired with CFRP sheets

This paper describes an experimental study on the behavior of lateral impact-damaged short columns and then reinforced with carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP). The purpose of the study was to evaluate the reinforcement effect of wrapping CFRP sheet on steel short columns with lateral impact damage. In this experimental study, thirty-three short columns were tested to study the influence of the impact energy, the loading position and the layer number of CFRP sheets on the ultimate strength of tested specimens. The ultimate strength, initial stiffness, ductility and failure modes of specimens were presented. The test results show that ultimate strength of columns has negative relation with lateral impact energy. The results also show that the closer impact position approaches to the end of specimens, the more decrease of ultimate strength shows. Wrapping CFRP sheets could improve the ultimate strength of specimens and delay local buckling. Based on the analysis of the experimental data, simplified formulas were put forward to predict the ultimate strength of the tested specimens, which show a good agreement with the experimental results.