STATIC RESPONSE OF FIBERGLASS PRETENSIONED COLUMNS

Six pretensioned concrete columns, either with fiberglass or steel ten dons, 200 mm x 200 mm x 2.4 m (8 in. x 8 in. x 8 ft) long, were tested to failure under axial and eccentric loading. Four were fiberglass pr etensioned columns, two with steel square spirals and two with fibergl ass square spirals. For comparison, two identical steel pretensioned c olumns were also tested. The fiberglass tendons were made of S-2 glass /epoxy, and the fiberglass spirals of E-glass/epoxy. The slenderness r atio (l/r) for the pretensioned columns was 40, and the eccentricity r atio (e/h) 0.25. The columns were instrumented to measure strains in t he concrete, prestressing strands, and lateral deflections at midheigh t. The results of the tests revealed that the performance of the fiber glass and steel pretensioned columns was very similar, although the co nfinement provided by the fiberglass spirals was inferior to that of s teel. The test results also showed reasonable agreement with nonlinear finite-element analyses using the PCFRAME program.