• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.241-256
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• 2010

The interaction between steel tube and concrete core is the key issue for understanding the behavior of concrete-filled steel tube columns (CFTs). This study investigates the force transfer by natural bond or by mechanical shear connectors and the interaction between the steel tube and the concrete core under three types of loading. Two and three-dimensional nonlinear finite element models are developed to study the force transfer between steel tube and concrete core. The nonlinear finite element program ABAQUS is used. Material and geometric nonlinearities of concrete and steel are considered in the analysis. The damage plasticity model provided by ABAQUS is used to simulate the concrete material behavior. Comparisons between the finite element analyses and own experimental results are made to verify the finite element models. A good agreement is observed between the numerical and experimental results. Parametric studies using the numerical models are performed to investigate the effects of diameterto-thickness ratio, uniaxial compressive strength of concrete, length of shear connectors, and the tensile strength of shear connectors.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.133-153
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• 2013

The concrete-filled steel tube (CFT) columns have several benefits of high load-bearing capacity, inherent ductility and toughness because of the confinement effect of the steel tube on concrete and the restraining effect of the concrete on local buckling of steel tube. However, the experimental research into the behavior of square CFT columns consisting of high-strength steel and high-strength concrete is limited. Six full scale CFT specimens were tested under flexural moment. The CFT columns consisted of high-strength steel tubes ($f_y$ = 325 MPa, 555 MPa, 900 MPa) and high-strength concrete ($f_{ck}$ = 80 MPa and 120 MPa). The ultimate capacity of high strength square CFT columns was compared with AISC-LRFD design code. Also, this study was focused on investigating the effect of high-strength materials on the structural behavior and the mathematical models of the steel tube and concrete. Nonlinear fiber element analyses were conducted based on the material model considering the cyclic bending behavior of high-strength CFT members. The results obtained from the numerical analyses were compared with the experimental results. It was found that the numerical analysis results agree well with the experimental results.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.185-192
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• 2018

Fly ash can significantly improve concrete workability and performance, and recycling fly ash in concrete can contribute to a cleaner environment. Since fly ash influences pozzolanic reactions in concrete, mechanical behaviors of concrete containing fly ash differ from traditional concrete. Creep behaviors of fly ash concrete filled steel tube arch were experimentally investigated for 10% and 30% fly ash replacement. The axes of two arches are designed as circular arc with 2.1 m computed span, 0.24 m arch rise, and their cross-sections are all in circular section. Time dependent deflection and strain of loading and mid-span steel tube were measured, and long term deflection of the model arch with 10% fly ash replacement was significantly larger than with 30% replacement. Considering the steel tube strain, compressive zone height, cross section curvature, and internal force borne by the steel tube, the compressive zone height and structural internal forces increased gradually over time due to concrete creep. Increased fly ash content resulted in more significant neutral axis shift. Mechanisms for internal force effects on neutral axis height were analyzed and verified experimentally.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.47-64
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• 2003

In a nonlinear finite element study on the mechanical behavior of simple beam connections to continuous concrete-filled steel tube columns, two principally different connection types were analyzed: one with plates attached to the outside of the tube wall, relying on shear transfer, and one with an extended plate inserted through the steel section to ensure bearing on the concrete core. The load was applied partly at the connection within the column length and partly at the top, representing the load from upper stories of a multistory building. The primary focus was on the increased demand for load transfer to ensure composite action when concrete with higher compressive strength is used. The results obtained from the analyses showed that the design bond strength derived from push tests is very conservative, mainly due to the high frictional shear resistance offered by pinching and contraction effects caused by connection rotation. However, with higher concrete strength the demand for load transfer increases, and is hard to fulfill for higher loads when connections are attached only to the steel section. Instead, the connection should penetrate into the concrete core to distribute load to the concrete by direct bearing.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.31-42
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• 2014

In this paper, concrete-filled steel tubular columns encased with precast reinforced concrete were studied. Four eccentrically loaded columns and a concentrically loaded column were tested to investigate the axial load-carrying capacity. The test parameters were the use of fiber reinforcement for cover concrete, eccentricity, column length, and lateral reinforcement. The maximum axial loads of the specimens agreed with the nominal strengths predicted by KBC 2009. However, in some specimens, the load carrying capacity quickly decreased after the peak strength due to spalling of the cover concrete.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.293-308
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• 2015

Interaction between the external thin-walled steel tube and the internal concrete core significantly increases the bending resistance of composite beams and beam-columns in comparison with the steel or concrete members. There is presented a developed method for design of hollow and solid concrete-filled steel tubular beams based on test data, which gives better agreement with test results than EC4 because its limitation to take an increase in strength of concrete caused by confinement contradicts the recommendation of 6.7.2(4) that full composite action up to failure may be assumed between steel and concrete components of the member. Good agreement between the results of carried out experimental, numerical and theoretical investigations allows recommending the proposed method to use in design practice.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.587-606
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• 2012

Concrete-filled-steel-tubular (CFST) columns have been well proven to improve effectively the strength, stiffness and ductility of concrete members. However, the central part of concrete in CFST columns is not fully utilised under uni-axial compression, bending and torsion. It has small contribution to both flexural and torsion strength, while it can be replaced effectively by steel with smaller area to give similar load-carrying capacity. Also, the confining pressure in CFST columns builds up slowly because the initial elastic dilation of concrete is small before micro-crackings of concrete are developed. From these observations, it is convinced that the central concrete can be effectively replaced by another hollow steel tube with smaller area to form double-skinned concrete-filled-steel-tubular (CFDST) columns. In this study, a series of uni-axial compression tests were carried out on CFDST and CFST columns with and without external steel rings. From the test results, it was observed that on average that the stiffness and elastic strength of CFDST columns are about 25.8% and 33.4% respectively larger than CFST columns with similar equivalent area. The averaged axial load-carrying capacity of CFDST columns is 7.8% higher than CFST columns. Lastly, a theoretical model that takes into account the confining effects of steel tube and external rings for predicting the uni-axial load-carrying capacity of CFDST columns is developed.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 1996.04a
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• pp.382-387
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• 1996

Three concrete filled steel tubular columns with six inner diaphrams are constructed and tested under field conditions. The size and shape of three columns are exactly same. The cross section is $40\times40cm$, and the height is 9m. Each column is constructed with normal concrete, CFST concrete, and high flowing concrete, respectively. Concrete is pumped into bottom parts of steel tubular columns from a concrete pump on the ground. Test data indicate that the slump flow of the concrete place in the top of the column is lower than that of the concrete before pumping by about 10~20cm. Slump flow loss of high flowing concrete caused by pumping is high compared to the other concretes. Concrete pump pressure of high flowing concrete is somewhat higher than that of CFST concrete.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.375-388
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• 2017

This paper presents a combined experimental, numerical, and analytical study on elliptical concrete-filled steel tubular (E-CFT) and rebar-stiffened elliptical concrete-filled steel tubular (RE-CFT) subjected to axial loading. ABAQUS was used to establish 3D finite element (FE) models for the composite columns and the FE results agreed well with the experimental results. It was found that the ultimate load-bearing capacity of RE-CFT stub columns was 20% higher than that of the E-CFT stub columns. Such improvement was attributed to the reinforcement effects from the internal rebar-stiffeners, which effectively enhanced the confinement effect on the core concrete, thereby significantly improved both the ultimate bearing capacity and the ductility of the E-CFT columns. Based on the results, equations were also established in this paper to predict the bearing capacities of E-CFT and RE-CFT stub columns under axial loading. The predicted results agreed well with both experimental and numerical results, and had much higher accuracy than other available methods.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.303-315
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• 2004

Frame composed of concrete-filled steel tubular columns and I-shaped steel beam has been researched in order to development reasonable connection details. The present paper describes the results of an experimental program in four different connection details. The connection details considered include through-bolt between I-shaped steel beams and concrete-filled steel tubular columns and two details of welded connections. One of the welded connection details is stiffened by angles welded in the interior of the profile wall at the beam flange level. The specimens were tested in a cruciform loading arrangement with variable monotonic loading on the beams and constant compressive load on the column. For through-bolt details, the contribution of friction and bearing were investigated by embedding some of the bolts in the concrete. The results of the tests show that through-bolt connection details are very ductility and the bearing is not important to the behavior of these moment connections. The angles welded in the interior of the profile wall increase the strength and stiffness of the welded connection detail. In addition, the behavior curves of these connections are compared and some interesting conclusions are drawn. The results are summarized for the strength and stiffness of each connection.