Lateral Behaviour of Concrete-Filled FRP Tube Piles

Abstract

Applications of fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composite piles are rapidly gaining traction in Canada and around the world. FRP piles offer several advantages compared to traditional piles, the most important of which is the corrosion resistivity and its applicability to marine applications or in any other corrosive environments. Concrete-filled FRP tube piles are the most commonly used type of these composite piles. In this system, there are two main structural components: an FRP shell or tube, and a concrete infill without steel reinforcement. The relative stiffness of these two components controls the piles performance to vertical and lateral loads. This paper investigates the effect of the relative stiffness of the individual pile’s components on its structural and geotechnical performance utilizing 3D finite element models of a full-scale field tests conducted during the construction of route 40 Highway Bridge in Virginia. Based on the curves of deflection along the length of the pile, the modeling results were in good accordance with the experimental data, which means that the proposed model can be used in a parametric study to optimize the design of composite piles.