• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.705-717
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• 2018

This paper presents a numerical investigation on the mechanical performance of concrete-filled dual steel tubular columns of circular section subjected to concentric axial load. A three-dimensional numerical model is developed and validated against a series of experimental tests. A good agreement is obtained between the experimental and numerical results, both in the peak load value and in the ascending and descending branches of the load-displacement curves. By means of the numerical model, a parametric study is carried out to investigate the influence of the main parameters that determine the axial capacity of double-tube columns, such as the member slenderness, inner and outer steel tube thicknesses and the concrete grade - of both the outer concrete ring and inner core -, including ultra-high strength concrete. A total number of 163 numerical simulations are carried out, by combining the different parameters. Specific indexes are defined (Strength Index, Concrete-Steel Contribution Ratio, Inner Concrete Contribution Ratio) to help rating the relative mechanical performance of dual steel tubular columns as compared to conventional concrete-filled steel tubular columns, and practical design recommendations are subsequently given.

• 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.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.405-421
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• 2023

An experimental study on six axially-loaded composite short columns with different thicknesses of steel tube and that of the concrete plate was carried out. Compared to the mechanical behavior of component specimens under axially compressed, the failure modes, compression deformation, and strain process were obtained. The two main parameters that have a significant enhancement to cross-sectional strength were also analyzed. The failure of an axially loaded UHPC-CFST short column is due to the crushing of the UHPC plate, while the CFST member does reach its maximum resistance. A reduction coefficient K'c, related to the confinement coefficient, is introduced to account for the contribution of CFST members to the ultimate load-carrying capacity of the UHPC-CFST composite short columns. Based on the regression analysis of the relationship between the confinement index ξ and the value of fcc/fc, a unified formula for estimating the axial compressive strength of CFST short columns was proposed, combined with the experimental results in this research, and an equation for reliably predicting the strength of UHPC-CFST composite short columns under axial compression were also proposed.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.171-185
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• 2001

The design of tall buildings has recently provided many challenges to structural engineers. One such challenge is to minimise the cross-sectional dimensions of columns to ensure greater floor space in a building is attainable. This has both an economic and aesthetics benefit in buildings, which require structural engineering solutions. The use of high strength steel in tall buildings has the ability to achieve these benefits as the material provides a higher strength to cross-section ratio. However as the strength of the steel is increased the buckling characteristics become more dominant with slenderness limits for both local and global buckling becoming more significant. To arrest the problems associated with buckling of high strength steel, concrete filling and encasement can be utilised as it has the affect of changing the buckling mode, which increases the strength and stiffness of the member. This paper describes an experimental program undertaken for both encased and concrete filled composite columns, which were designed to be stocky in nature and thus fail by strength alone. The columns were designed to consider the strength in axial compression and were fabricated from high strength steel plate. In addition to the encased and concrete filled columns, unencased columns and hollow columns were also fabricated and tested to act as calibration specimens. A model for the axial strength was suggested and this is shown to compare well with the test results. Finally aspects of further research are addressed in this paper which include considering the effects of slender columns which may fail by global instabilities.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.587-602
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• 2020

In recent years, the composite columns have been widely used in the structures. These columns are mainly used to construct the structures with a large span and high floor height. Concrete filled tubes (CFTs) are a type of composite column, which are popular nowadays due to their numerous benefits. The purpose of this study is to investigate such frames at elevated temperatures. The method used in this research is based on section 2.2 of Eurocode 4. First, for the verification purpose, a comparison was made between the experimental results and the numerical model of the concrete filled tube. Then a composite frame was analyzed under fire temperature with different parameters. The results showed that the failure time decreased with increasing the friction of different models. Moreover, investigation of the concrete moisture content revealed that an increase in the concrete moisture content from 3% to 10% led to extended failure time for different models. For instance, in the second frame model, the failure time has increased up to 8%.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.21-28
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• 2008

The CFT (Concrete Filled Steel Tube) columns became popular in high rise building construction due to not only its composite effect but also economic advantage. However, it has been pointed out in various previous researches that the current practice in CFT columns may lead the steel tube to probable local buckling at critical sections of the columns right after yielding. To resolve such a problem, the TR-CFT (Transversely Reinforced Concrete Filled Steel Tube) column is proposed to control or at least delay the local buckling state at the critical section by wrapping the CFT columns with carbon fiber sheet. The validity of the proposed column system is validated through the present paper by observing the experimental performance and comparing it with the analytical prediction of the TR-CFT columns with hish strength concrete. It is also shown that the current design code provisions such as ACI-318, in which the contribution of concrete confining effect filled in steel tube is not appropriately accounted for, may contain too much conservatism.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.431-452
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• 2014

The present study focuses on the mechanical behaviour of concrete filled double skin steel tubular (CFDST) stub columns confined by fiber reinforced polymer (FRP). A series of axial compression tests have been conducted on two CFDST stub columns, eight CFDST stub columns confined by FRP and a concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) stub column confined by FRP, respectively. The influences of hollow section ratio, FRP wall thickness and fibre longitudinal-circumferential proportion on the load-strain curve and the concrete stress-strain curve for stub columns with annular section were discussed. The test results displayed that the FRP jacket can obviously enhance the carrying capacity of stub columns. Based on the test results, a new model which includes the effects of confinement factor, hollow section ratio and lateral confining pressure of the outer steel tube was proposed to calculate the compressive strength of confined concrete. Using the present concrete strength model, the formula to predict the carrying capacity of CFDST stub columns confined by FRP was derived. The theoretically predicted results agree well with those obtained from the experiments and FE analysis. The present method is also adapted to calculate the carrying capacity of CFST stub columns confined by FRP.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.307-324
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• 2011

With the increasing use of concrete-filled steel tubes (CFST) as structural members, there is a growing need to provide suitable measures for possible strengthening or repair of these kinds of structural elements. Fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) jacketing is a recent method and is particularly attractive in which it does not significantly increase the section size, and is relatively easy to install. Thus, it can be used to enhance strength and/or ductility of CFST members. Very little information is available on the performance of FRP-strengthened CFST members under fire conditions. This paper is an attempt to study the fire performance of CFST columns strengthened by FRP. The results of fire endurance tests on FRP-strengthened circular CFST columns are presented. Failure modes of the specimens after exposure to fire, temperatures in the cross section, axial deformation and fire resistance of the composite columns are analysed. It is demonstrated that the required fire endurance can be achieved if the strengthened composite columns are appropriately designed.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.13-25
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• 2019

Reactive powder concrete (RPC) is a type of ultra-high strength concrete that has a relatively high brittleness. However, its ductility can be improved by confinement, and the use of RPC in composite RPC filled steel tube columns has become an important subject of research in recent years. This paper aims to present an experimental study of axial capacity calculation of RPC filled circular steel tube columns. Twenty short columns under axial compression were tested and information on their failure patterns, deformation performance, confinement mechanism and load capacity were presented. The effects of load conditions, diameter-thickness ratio and compressive strength of RPC on the axial behavior were further discussed. The experimental results show that: (1) specimens display drum-shaped failure or shear failure respectively with different confinement coefficients, and the load capacity of most specimens increases after the peak load; (2) the steel tube only provides lateral confinement in the elastic-plastic stage for fully loaded specimens, while the confinement effect from steel tube initials at the set of loading for partially loaded specimens; (3) confinement increases the load capacity of specimens by 3% to 38%, and this increase is more pronounced as the confinement coefficient becomes larger; (4) the residual capacity-to-ultimate capacity ratio is larger than 0.75 for test specimens, thus identifying the composite columns have good ductility. The working mechanism and force model of the composite columns were analyzed, and based on the twin-shear unified strength theory, calculation methods of axial capacity for columns with two load conditions were established.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.165-176
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• 2021

Existing research on confined concrete filled steel tubular (CCFT) columns has been mainly focused on static or cyclic loading. In this paper, square section CCFT and CFT columns were tested under both static and impact loading, using a 10,000 kN capacity compression test machine and a drop weight testing equipment. Research parameters included bonded and unbonded fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) wraps, with carbon, basalt and glass FRPs (or CFRP, BFRP, and GFRP), respectively. Time history curves for impact force and steel strain observed are discussed in detail. Experimental results show that the failure modes of specimens under impact testing were characterized by local buckling of the steel tube and cracking at the corners, for both CCFT and CFT columns, similar to those under static loading. For both static and impact loading, the FRP wraps could improve the behavior and increase the loading capacity. To analyze the dynamic behavior of the composite columns, a finite element, FE, model was established in LS-DYNA. A simplified method that is compared favorably with test results is also proposed to predict the impact load capacity of square CCFT columns.