New Strategy for Corrosion Inhibition in RC Columns without Sacrificing Seismic Performance: CFRP Strips Acting as Stirrups and Anodes of ICCP

This study proposes an innovative composite column, incorporating carbon fiber–reinforced polymer (CFRP) strips as transverse reinforcement and anodes in an impressed current cathodic protection (ICCP) system, effectively mitigating corrosion in longitudinal steel bars. Besides, the CFRP stirrups offer enhanced confinement, and the reserved longitudinal steel bars ensure the column’s ductility. This research investigates the electrochemical and seismic performance of the novel composite column. The test results confirm the stable electrochemical behavior of the ICCP system. Furthermore, after 180 days of wet–dry cycling, the composite column with optimized ICCP parameters exhibited no further corrosion in the longitudinal steel bars, indicating complete corrosion prevention, whereas corrosion increased by 67.3% in the column without ICCP. The current density magnitude and CFRP stirrup configuration were found to significantly influence both the corrosion state and the seismic performance of the composite columns. Compared with the column without ICCP, the lateral loading capacity, ductility, and energy dissipation capacity of columns with ICCP increased by up to 9.3%, 23.1%, and 98.6%, respectively. Finally, a finite-element model based on OpenSees (version 3.4.0) was developed, and the predictions showed strong agreement with experimental results.