• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.371-382
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• 2017

Concrete filled steel tubes are extensively applied in engineering structures due to their resistance to high tensile and compressive load and convenience in construction. But one major flaw, their vulnerability to environmental attack, can severely reduce the strength and life of these structures. Degradation due to corrosion of steel confining the concrete is one of the major durability problems faced by civil engineers to maintain these structures. The problem accelerates as inner surface of steel tube is in contact with concrete which serves as electrolyte. If it remains unnoticed, it further accelerates and can be catastrophic. This paper discusses a non-destructive degradation monitoring technique for early detection corrosion in steel tubes in CFST members. Due to corrosion, damage in the form of debonding and pitting occurs in steel sections. Guided ultrasonic waves have been used as a feasible and attractive solution for the detection and monitoring of corrosion damages in CFST sections. Guided waves have been utilized to monitor the effect of notch and debond defects in concrete filled steel tubes simulating pitting and delamination of steel tubes from surrounding concrete caused by corrosion. Pulse transmission has been used to monitor the healthy and simulated damaged specimens. A methodology is developed and successfully applied for the monitoring of concrete filled steel tubular sections undergoing accelerated chloride corrosion. The ultrasonic signals efficiently narrate the state of steel tube undergoing corrosion.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.77 no.6
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• pp.745-751
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• 2021

Concrete filled double skin tubular members (CFDST) consist of double concentric circular or square steel tubes with concrete filled between the two steel tubes. The CFDST members, having a hollow section inside the internal tube, are generally lighter than ordinary concrete filled steel tubular members (CFT) which have a solid cross-section. Therefore, when the CFDST members are applied to bridge piers, reduction of seismic action can be expected. The present study aims to investigate, experimentally, the behavior of CFDST stub columns with double concentric square steel tubes filled with concrete (SS-CFDST) when working under centric compression. Two test parameters, namely, inner-to-outer width ratio and outer square steel tube's width-to-thickness were selected and outer steel tube's width-to-thickness ratio ranging from 70 to 160 were considered. In the results, shear failure of the concrete fill and local buckling of the double skin tubes having largest inner-to-outer width ratio were observed. A method to predict axial loading capacity of SS-CFDST is also proposed. In addition, the load capacity in the axial direction of stub column test on SS-CFDST is compared with that of double circular CFDST. Finally, the biaxial stress behavior of both steel tubes under plane stress is discussed.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.507-530
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• 2023

The number of studies investigating the response of concrete-filled tubes (CFTs) under shear has been very limited in the literature. This lack of research has been traditionally reflected in international design standards as rather conservative shear strength predictions for CFTs. The dearth of research on the shear response is even more pronounced for the case of concrete-filled stainless steel tubes (CFSSTs). In line with this, the present study investigates the shear response of circular and square CFSSTs using advanced finite element (FE) analysis. A thorough review of the previous studies on the shear response of carbon steel CFTs is provided along with a summary of past experimental programmes as well as the developed and codified design methods. A comprehensive numerical study is then conducted considering a wide range of circular and square, austenitic and lean duplex CFSSTs with different concrete infills and shear span-to-depth ratios. The effect of the tail length on the shear response is investigated and the minimum required tail length for achieving full shear capacity is established. The simulations are also used to highlight the importance of the dilation of the concrete core in the shear response of concrete-filled tubes and its relationship with the utilised boundary conditions. Furthermore, the numerical results are compared in detail with the predictions of design approaches developed previously for carbon steel CFTs and their accuracy and applicability to the stainless steel counterpart are demonstrated and recommendations are made accordingly.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.2 no.2 s.4
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• pp.51-58
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• 2002

This paper is presented an experimental studies on bond stress between steel and concrete in concrete filled steel tubes. In the actual building frames, vertical dead and live loads on beams are usually transferred to columns by beam-to-column connections. In case when concrete filled steel tubes are used as columns of an actual building frame which has a simple connection, shear forces in the beam ends are not directly transferred to the concrete core but directly to the steel tube. Provided that the bond effect between steel tube and concrete core should not be expected, none of the end shear in the beams would be transferred to the concrete core but only to the steel tube. Therefore, it is important to investigate the bond strength between steel tube and concrete core in the absence of shear connectors.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.55-69
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• 2006

The results of tests conducted on 11 concrete-filled steel tubular columns were reported. Concrete was partially filled in circular steel tubular columns. The primary test parameters were radius and thickness of steel tubes, concrete height, loading patterns and attachment of diaphragm and studs. Concrete strain was measured directly by embedding strain gauges so that the effect of diaphragm on concrete confinement could be investigated. The effects of concrete height and diaphragm on ultimate strength and ductility of steel tubes were investigated. The comparisons of the test results with the existing results for rectangular cross-sections were made on the basis of ultimate strength and ductility of concrete-filled steel tubular columns.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.1067-1085
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• 2016

Recent research on steel moment-resisting connection between steel beams and concrete filled steel tubes has shown that there are considerable advantages to be obtained by anchoring the connection to the concrete infill within the tube using anchors in blind bolts. In the research reported here, extensive experimental tests and numerical analyses have been performed to study the anchorage behaviour of cogged deformed reinforcing bars within concrete filled circular steel tubes. This data in essential knowledge for the design of the steel connections that use anchored blind bolts, both for strength and stiffness. A series of pull-out tests were conducted using steel tubes with different diameter to thickness ratios under monotonic and cyclic loading. Both hoop strains and longitudinal strains in the tubes were measured together with applied load and slip. Various lead-in lengths before the bend and length of tailed extension after the bend were examined. These dimensions were limited by the dimensions of the steel tube and did not meet the requirements for "standard" cogs as specified in concrete standards such as AS 3600 and ACI 318. Nevertheless, all of the tested specimens failed by bar fracture outside the steel tubes. A comprehensive 3D Finite Element model was developed to simulate the pull-out tests. The FE model took into account material nonlinearities, deformations in reinforcing bars and interactions between different surfaces. The FE results were found to be in good agreement with experimental results. This model was then used to conduct parametric studies to investigate the influence of the confinement provided by the steel tube on the infilled concrete.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.297-312
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• 2008

A concrete filled double skin tubular (called CFDST in abbreviation) member consists of two concentric circular steel tubes and filled concrete between them. Purpose of this study is to investigate their bending characteristics experimentally. The two test parameters of the tubes considered were an inner-to-outer diameter ratio and a thickness-diameter ratio. As a result, their observed failure modes were controlled by tensile cracking or local buckling of the outer tube. Discussion is focused on the confinement effect on the filled concrete due to the both tubes and also the influence of the inner-to-outer diameter ratios on their deformability and load carrying capacity.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.59-66
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• 2019

Hollow steel-reinforced concrete-filled GFRP tubular member is a new kind of composite members. Firstly set the mold in the GFRP tube (non-bearing component), then set the longitudinal reinforcements with stirrups (steel reinforcement cage) between the GFRP tube and the mold, and filled the concrete between them. Through the axial compression test of the hollow steel-reinforced concrete-filled GFRP tubular member, the working mechanism and failure modes of composite members were obtained. Based on the experiment, when the load reached the ranges of $55-70%P_u$ ($P_u-ultimate$ load), white cracks appeared on the surface of the GFRP tubes of specimens. At that time, the confinement effects of the GFRP tubes on core concrete were obvious. Keep loading, the ranges of white cracks were expanding, and the confinement effects increased proportionally. In addition, the damages of specimens, which were accompanied with great noise, were marked by fiber breaking and resin cracking on the surface of GFRP tubes, also accompanied with concrete crushing. The bearing capacity of the axially compressed components increased with the increase of reinforcement ratio, and decreased with the increase of hollow ratio. When the reinforcement ratio was increased from 0 to 4.30%, the bearing capacity was increased by about 23%. When the diameter of hollow part was decreased from 55mm to 0, the bearing capacity was increased by about 32%.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.821-835
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• 2016

The paper presents an experimental study of the structural behavior of circular flyash-concrete-filled steel tubular stub columns under axial compressive loads. In this study, 90% and 100% by weight of the cement in the concrete core was replaced with flyash. Twenty-seven specimens were tested to study the influence of flyash content, wall thickness of the steel tube, and curing age on the ultimate capacity and confinement effect. The experimental results were compared with the design values calculated using AISC-LRFD (1999), ACI (1999), AIJ (1997) and Eurocode 4 (1994). From the experimental study, it was determined that the confinement effect of circular steel tubes filled with high content flyash concrete was better than that of specimens filled with ordinary Portland cement concrete. The 5.88-mm-thick steel tube filled with 100% flyash concrete was equivalent in strength to a steel tube filled with C30 concrete at 28 days.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.1023-1044
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• 2015

Concrete-filled tubes (CFT), formed by an outer steel tube filled with plain or reinforced concrete inside, have been increasingly used these recent decades as columns or beam-columns, especially for tall buildings in seismic areas due to their excellent structural response. This improved behavior is derived from the effect of confinement provided by the tube, since the compressive strength of concrete increases when being subjected to hydrostatic pressure. In circular CFTs under compression, the whole tube is uniformly tensioned due to the radial expansion of concrete. Contrarily, in rectangular and square-shaped CFTs, the lateral flanges become subjected to in-plane bending derived from this volumetric expansion, and this fact implies a reduction of the confinement effect of the core. This study presents a numerical analysis of different configurations of CFT stub columns with inner stiffening plates, limited to the study of the influence of these plates on the compressive behavior without eccentricity. The final purpose is to evaluate the efficiency in terms of strength and ductility of introducing stiffeners into circular and square CFT sections under large deformation axial loading.