Buckling performance of pultruded glass fiber reinforced polymer profiles infilled with waste steel fiber reinforced concrete under axial compression

This study reports the results of a series of tests of pultruded glass fiber reinforced polymer (P--GFRP) box section composite profile columns, geometrically similar with/without concrete core, containing 0-1-2-3% steel fiber, with different lengths. The recycled steel wires were obtained from waste tyres. The effects of steel fiber ratio on the collapse and size effect of concrete filled P-GFRP columns under axial pressure were investigated experimentally and analytically. A total of 36 columns were tested under compression. The presence of pultruded profile and steel wire ratio were selected as the primary variable. The capacity of pultruded profiles with infilled concrete are averagely 9.3 times higher than the capacity of concrete without pultruded profile. The capacity of pultruded profiles with infilled concrete are averagely 34% higher than that of the pultruded profiles without infilled concrete. The effects of steel wire ratio are more pronounced in slender columns which exhibit buckling behavior. Moreover, the proposed analytical approach to calculate the capacity of P-GFRP columns successfully predicted the experimental findings in terms of both pure axial and buckling capacity.