Abstract
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The confinement efficiency for FRP-confined square concrete columns is relatively low
compared to circular columns due to a large area of ineffectively-confined concrete and stress
concentration at sharp corners. Shape modification of square concrete columns has been proposed but
modifying the shape of cross-section from a square to a circle results in a significant increase in crosssectional
area and self-weight of the columns, which raises new issues and is not practical when the
space in the structure is limited. To address the abovementioned issues, a spline-shaped cross-section is
proposed in this study as a target shape for shape modification. A finite element model was first built and
validated with results from a previous experimental program. Specimens with square, circular shapemodified
and spline-shaped modified cross-section and confined with FRP were modelled and compared.
A number of spline-shaped cross-sections with different aspect ratios (defined as the ratio of minor axis to
the major axis) were incorporated in this study. Results from the analysis showed that the confinement
efficiency of FRP-confined spline-shaped concrete columns was higher than square or circular columns.
Among the spline-shaped columns, those with a small aspect ratio achieved higher confinement
efficiency than those with a large aspect ratio.