Abstract:To investigate the influence of steel fiber content on the mechanical properties of glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) confined steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) short columns under axial compression, acoustic emission (AE) technology was employed to monitor the damage evolution of core concrete. The results demonstrated that as the steel fiber content increased from 0% to 1.8%, both the peak load and displacement ductility of specimens exhibited significant enhancement, with maximum increments reaching 31.55% and 15.60% respectively. The axial compression process could be divided into three distinct stages based on AE energy evolution trends, with the most active AE energy release observed during the crack development stage accompanied by Kaiser effect. Analysis of RA-AF distribution characteristics and concrete failure patterns revealed a progressive increase in shear crack proportion with both loading progression and steel fiber content elevation. The RA-AF values were found to quantitatively characterize the failure features of core concrete. The evolution characteristics of b-value effectively reflected the concrete fracture process, where the descending trend of b-value during the elastic stage served as critical precursor information for structural instability. Ultimate failure consistently occurred when the b-value stabilized at its minimum threshold.