General Stress-Strain Model for Steel- and FRP-Confined Concrete

A new and general stress-strain model for concrete confined by steel or fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) is developed in this work. One additional variable and one constant are added to the well-known Popovics model to control the type and the shape of the stress-strain curve. The proposed model has one simple, continuous, and explicit expression and can exhibit either hardening or softening types of responses. This general model provides a unified platform for modeling stress-strain of concrete confined by different materials, such as steel or FRP, and help to overcome inconsistency or complexity. The parameters of the stress-strain model are determined by analytical study and data regression using a large and up-to-date test database. The proposed stress-strain model is validated with experimental results and compared with existing models; it shows good performance and superior flexibility and versatility of the model. (C) 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.