Cold-formed elliptical concrete-filled steel tubular columns subjected to monotonic and cyclic axial compression

Abstract

Concrete-filled steel tubular columns are widely used in structural systems, and elliptical concrete-filled steel tubular columns are receiving more and more attention. An experimental study on cold-formed elliptical concrete-filled steel tubular stub columns was carried out under monotonic and cyclic axial compression. The failure modes, axial load–displacement curves, ultimate loads, hoop strain–axial strain behavior, strength deterioration, and residual deformation were obtained and discussed. Complementary finite element models considering the complex non-uniform confinement between steel tube and concrete were developed and validated by experimental results. Then, the validated FE model was used to study the influence of aspect ratio, yield strength of steel, and compressive strength of concrete on the axial capacity of elliptical concrete-filled steel tubular stub columns. Finally, a relatively simple superposition method was put forward to predict the axial bearing capacity of elliptical concrete-filled steel tubular stub columns. Compared with the test data, both the numerical method and superposition method can generate accurate predictions.