DISCUSSIONS AND CLOSURES

Discussion of Unloading and Reloading Stress-Strain Model for Conned Concrete by Junichi Sakai and Kazuhiko Kawashima
January 2006, Vol. 132, No. 1, pp. 112122.

DOI: 10.1061/ ASCE 0733-9445 2006 132:1 112

Asad Esmaeily, A.M.ASCE1; Steven D. Hart2; and Brandy Gaitan3

1

Assistant Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Kansas State Univ., Manhattan, KS. E-mail: asad@ksu.edu 2 Graduate Research Assistant, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Kansas State Univ., Manhattan, KS. E-mail: sdhart@ksu.edu 3 Research Assistant, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Kansas State Univ., Manhattan, KS.

In this paper, the authors, Sakai and Kawashima, propose a comprehensive . . . model . . . that takes into account the effect of repeated unloading and reloading and partial loading. This model was evaluated by conducting several tests on concrete cylinders conned by carbon-ber-reinforced polymer CFRP material. Three standard 150 mm 300 mm 6 in. 12 in. concrete cylinders were cast and cured for 28 days in a moist curing room. Two strain gauges with a length of 50 mm 2 in. were placed longitudinally on the central part of the specimens on opposite sides. The unconned compressive strength of the specimens was 40.7 MPa 5.9 ksi at the time of testing. Connement was provided by two layers of CFRP attached by an epoxy adhesive, which is different from conventional connement by steel as used in the authors original research. Testing was conducted by using a closed loop servocontrolled material testing system with a maximum capacity of 667 kN 150 kips . Since the envelope for CFRP conned concrete does not have the descending branch after a peak point as observed for conventionally reinforced cases, all specimens were initially loaded to 614 kN 138 kips at a rate of 62 kN 14 kips per minute to achieve sufcient plastic strain for a reasonable evaluation of the unloading/reloading paths. There was a creep-hold of 108 min at 133 kN 30 kip load level for one of the specimens. At the load level of 614 kN 138 k , the specimen with a creep-hold was subjected to three complete unloading and reloading cycles at a rate of 124 kN 28 kips per minute, the next specimen had similar cycles but at a rate of 186 kN 42 kips per minute, and the last one was loaded monotonically to 614 kN 150 kips to establish the envelope curve. Fig. 1 shows a sample specimen cylinder positioned in the load frame. The authors used the total length of the specimen to evaluate the average strain, as did some previous studies Wang et al. 1978; Ahmad and Shah 1982; Hoshikuma et al. 1997 . However, Mander et al. 1988a used the central one-third of the specimen. The authors discuss softening that may occur because of imperfect contact between the load heads and specimen, but they do not correct for this effect or for the end restraining effects as described by Mansur et al. 1995 . Because the nonlinear behavior at failure occurs in a specic area, the data collected to model that

behavior should come from the area in question, not from the structure as a whole. So, using an area away from and less affected by the local restraining effects, namely, the central onethird of the specimen length as used by Mander et al. is more accurate and realistic. The average strain within the central 50 mm 2 in. of the length is used in this evaluation. Fig. 2 and Fig. 3 compare the Sakai-Kawashima model and results of the tests. Only the rst of the three cycles is shown for clarity. Test specimens under both loading rates exhibit curved unloading and linear reloading paths. On the unloading branch, the Sakai-Kawashima model underpredicts the actual stress measured on the specimens. Additionally, the test data indicate that the curvature of the parabolic function of the model is too severe to track closely with the observed stress and gives a lower plastic strain for the rst reloading point. For the complete reloading curve, our experiments, as well as other models Mander et al. 1988b; Bahn and Hsu 1998 , show this path as linear. The model does not consider parameters related to connement, concrete, or reinforcement that may affect the pattern of unloading/reloading curves as observed here and mentioned by the authors: caution should be used when applying it to conditions not addressed in the test program. However, it must be noted that the SakaiKawashima model, which was developed on the basis of spiral steel reinforcement, does provide a reasonable approximation for the behavior of CFRP conned concrete. The Sakai-Kawashima model describes the unloading path with a parabolic function and the complete reloading path initially with a parabolic function that transitions to a linear function as strain increases. At low levels of load or stress near the value of the plastic strain, pl, the efforts to enhance the assumed accuracy may exceed what can reasonably be extracted from the test data or what is practically necessary for application.

Fig. 1. CFRP conned specimen in the test apparatus

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Fig. 2. Cycles at 124 kN 28 kips per minute specimen with creephold

Performance of a reinforced concrete member is primarily determined by the behavior of the steel at typical axial load levels Kunnath 2004 . For example, a 300% increase of the concrete peak strength for a section under an axial load of 0.15f cAg, leads to less than 10% increase in moment capacity Esmaeily and Lucio 2004 . Additionally, the models used for the monotonic envelope curve of conned concrete are limited in their accuracy. Finally, determination of the basic model parameters from the test data, as described in the paper, has its margin of error. Under these conditions, a simple linear function to model the stressstrain relationship at stresses below 7 MPa about 1.0 ksi seems to be sufciently accurate to model the response. Our tests were conducted following the authors cycling scheme of complete unloading/reloading from a given stress-

strain point. Comparisons were not conducted for partial unloading/reloading, which were conducted between a set unloading strain and a set reloading stress. These types of tests are described by Bahn and Hsu 1998 as cycles from and to a common point. Bahn and Hsu also describe three additional necessary loading regimes for investigating concrete response to cyclic loading: monotonic, cycles to the envelope curve, and cycles with random loading. The authors focus almost exclusively on cycles to a common point. Although these tests are suitable for developing this model, the model should then be evaluated against a random loading response, which is the scenario in an earthquake. Partial unloading/reloading cycles by the model between two strain levels, and not an unloading strain and reloading stress, may end up to unrealistic low stresses for a specic strain. In conclusion, the Sakai-Kawashima model is in approximate agreement with our test data conducted under different connement and thus shows promise as a comprehensive model useful under varying conditions. Issues remain, however, with the applicability of the model to random loading scenarios; shape of the unloading/reloading curves and its correlation to the type of connement, concrete, and steel; loading rate, and other factors such as creep history; and the degree of the accuracy of these curves compared with the accuracy of the global parameters.

References
Ahmad, S. H., and Shah, S. P. 1982 . Stress-strain curves of concrete conned by spiral reinforcement. J. Am. Concr. Inst., 79 6 , 484 490. Bahn, B. Y., and Hsu, C. T. 1998 . Stress-strain behavior of concrete under cyclic loading. ACI Mater. J., 95 2 , 178193. Esmaeily, A., and Lucio, K. 2004 . Analytical performance of reinforced concrete columns using various connement models. Int. Symp. on Conned Concrete (ISCC), id-32, Changsha, China. Hoshikuma, J., Kawashima, K., Nagaya, K., and Taylor, A. W. 1997 . Stress-strain model for conned reinforced concrete in bridge piers. J. Struct. Eng., 123 5 , 624633. Kunnath, S. A. 2004 . Inuence of connement modeling on cyclic response of reinforced concrete columns. Int. Symp. on Conned Concrete (ISCC), id-43, Changsha, China. Mander, J. B., Priestley, M. J. N., and Park, R. 1988a . Observed stressstrain behavior of conned concrete. J. Struct. Eng., 114 8 , 1827 1849. Mander, J. B., Priestley, M. J. N., and Park, R. 1988b . Theoretical stress-strain model for conned concrete. J. Struct. Eng., 114 8 , 18041825. Mansur, M. A., Wee, T. H., and Chin, M. S. 1995 . Derivation of the compete stress-strain curves for concrete in compression. Mag. Concrete Res., 47 173 , 285290. Wang, P. T., Shah, S. P., and Naaman, A. E. 1978 . Stress-strain curves of normal and lightweight concrete in compression. J. Am. Concr. Inst., 75 11 , 603611.

Fig. 3. Cycles at 186 kN 42 kips per minute

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