The effect of pre-existing damage is significant on the compressive performance of confined NSC with small amounts of CFRP.
The effect of pre-existing damage is smaller on CFRP-confined HSC than on CFRP-confined NSC.
Pre-existing damage causes higher lateral strain for CFRP-confined NSC and HSC resulting in earlier failure.
Increasing confinement pressure can eliminate the negative effect of pre-existing damage.