EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH ON BENDING PERFORMANCE OF SPLICED CONCRETE-FILLED GFRP TUBE COMPOSITE MEMBERS CONNECTED WITH STEEL PLATES

The spliced concrete-filled GFRP tube composite member connected with steel plates is a new type of composite member, which is formed by connecting two independent GFRP tubes with steel plates and filling the tubes with concrete. At present, few researches have been conducted on the bending performance of the spliced concrete-filled GFRP tube members, thus the work presented in this paper is new. The test results showed that the content of the connecting steel bars influenced the failure mode of the spliced members. For the member with the steel ratio of 1.96%, the damage occurred at the joint; while for the member with the steel ratio of 2.94%, the damage occurred near the end of the welded reinforcement. Besides, the test specimen with high steel ratio had higher bearing capacity than those with low steel ratio. Moreover, the spliced members had higher bearing capacity than their non-spliced counterparts, showing the splicing through steel plates was feasible and could guarantee the mechanical behaviour of the spliced members. The minimum steel ratio was suggested to be 1.96%.