• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.389-398
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• 2013

The structural provisions of rectangular CFT (concrete-filled tubular) columns in the 2005/2010 AISC Specification, ACI 318-08, and EC4 were comparatively analyzed as a preliminary study for establishing the unified standards for composite structures. The provisions analyzed included those related to the nominal strength, the effect of confinement, plate slenderness, effective flexural stiffness, and the material strength limitations. Small or large difference can be found among the provisions of AISC, ACI, and EC4. Generally, the 2010 AISC Specification provides the revised provisions which reflect up-to-date test results and tries to minimize the conflict with the ACI provisions. For example, the 2010 AISC Specification introduced a more finely divided plate slenderness limits for CFT columns. In seismic applications, the plate slenderness limits required for highly and moderately ductile CFT columns were separately defined. However, the upper cap limitations on material strengths in both the AISC and EC4 provisions are too restrictive and need to be relaxed considering the high-strength material test database currently available. This study found that no provisions reviewed in this paper provide a generally satisfactory method for predicting the P-M interaction strength of CFT columns under various material combinations. It is also emphasized that a practical constitutive model, which can reasonably reflect the stress-strain characteristics of confined concrete of rectangular CFT columns, is urgently needed for a reliable prediction of the P-M interaction strength.