A study on the behaviour of concrete columns wrapped with hemp fabric

The use of natural hemp fabric for strengthening existing concrete columns was investigated in this work. The results presented in this paper were based on an experimental setup analysing the efficiency of natural hemp fibres for the confinement of existing concrete columns. The variables considered were the number of hemp fabric layers, the column length/diameter ratio and the presence of transverse reinforcement. Uniaxial compression tests were performed on 36 specimens. The axial stress-strain curves ductility, and failure modes were analysed. The test results indicate that the three variables considered had significant effects on the confined columns' strength and post-peak behaviour.