A comparison between the use of FRP, FRCM and HPM for concrete confinement

The use of new methods to strengthen and rehabilitate existing concrete and masonry structures is one of the challenges that the engineering community is facing in recent years. In this field, composite materials are acquiring more and more success, due to lower invasiveness and ease of application if compared to more traditional systems (e.g. steel plates or reinforced concrete jacketing). This work, based on experimental investigations, aims to propose a comparison between three different methods as possible strengthening solutions for existing concrete elements. Twenty compression tests were conducted on reduced scale concrete columns, realized by using a low performance concrete, in order to reproduce the poor mechanical properties of most existing structures. Two of them were left unconfined, while the other ones were reinforced by using Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP), Fiber Reinforced Cementitious Matrix (FRCM) or High Performance Mortar (HPM) systems. The effectiveness of the different strengthening techniques and the main differences in terms of structural response were investigated. Experimental results were then compared with predictions deriving from guidelines and theoretical models from the literature.