Vehicle Collision with Reinforced Concrete Columns Wrapped with Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composites

The dominant failure mode for existing reinforced concrete (RC) columns exposed to vehicle collisions is generally shear. Fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites have been widely used to retrofit RC structures. This study numerically investigates FRP's effectiveness in reducing potential collision damage and preventing shear failure in full-scale RC pier columns retrofitted with FRP wraps under vehicle collision. Developed finite element (FE) models of plain and FRP-wrapped RC columns were well validated by comparing numerical results against laboratory impact test results. The validated FE modeling method was extended to build full-scale unstrengthened and FRP-wrapped RC pier column models. A parametric study was performed examining the effect of vehicle velocity and layer number and types of FRP wraps, as well as fiber orientation, on the structural responses. Numerical results showed that an increase in the number of layers of FRP wraps could significantly reduce column damage and displacements but has less influence on the dissipation of impact force, shear force, and moment of the columns. Two dimensionless damage indexes were proposed for the assessment of shear failure.