Front. Archit. Civ. Eng. China 2008, 2(3): 205210 DOI 10.

1007/s11709-008-0035-5

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Junjie YANG, Hanyong XU, Guojun PENG

Behavior of concrete-filled double skin steel tubular columns with octagon section under axial compression

Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag 2008

Abstract Based on some conclusions of two kinds of concrete-filled double skin steel tube (CFDSST) members with circular or square sections, a new kind of CFDSST with octagonal section, where the outer tube has an octagonal section and the inner tube has a circular section, is proposed in this paper. Behaviors of the CFDSST members with octagon section subjected to axial compression are investigated, and some curves of load-strain of steel tubes and confined concrete and the bearing capacity of members are obtained. It is indicated that the bearing capacity of the columns with octagonal section is larger than that with square section and is smaller than that with circular section, and the bearing capacity of members is related to the ratio of the straight side to the bevelled one. Based on the proper stress-strain relationship, a couple of numerical analyses are made using the finite element software named ANSYS. Finally, a simplified formula is proposed in the paper, and the numerical results agree well with the experimental results and the mathematical solutions. The results are valuable for engineers. Keywords double skin, octagon section, axial compression, stress-strain relationship, bearing capacity

Introduction

Concrete-filled steel tube (CFST) is widely used in civil engineering structures because of its excellent properties, such as high load-capacity, outstanding plasticity and toughness, and ease of construction. CFST structures have been proven to provide efficient and economical
Translated from China Civil Engineering Journal, 2007, 40(2): 3338 [: ] Junjie YANG (*), Guojun PENG College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310014, China E-mail: yjinjie@163.com Hanyong XU Zhejiang College of Construction, Hangzhou 311231, China

applications in industrial structures, subways, high-rise buildings, arch bridges and others [1]. The status of CFST members is best when it is only subjected to the axial compression or with small load eccentricity which means the loading point is close to the centroid of CFST members. Thus, when the CFST member has a high slenderness ratio or it is subjected to a large eccentricity load, the load-capacity will be controlled by the bending stiffness and one cannot take advantage of its excellent strength capacity because of insufficient bending stiffness of materials near the centroid of the member section. In addition, the higher self weight increases the cost and proves to be a big burden to the foundation of the structures. Therefore, a new kind of CFST member, concrete filled double skill steel tube (CFDSST), has been introduced and has attracted lots of attention among researchers and engineers. CFDSST members are structures where two steel tubes are put together concentrically, and the concrete is filled into the space between them. Several typical sections of concrete-filled double-skin are shown in Fig. 1. A lot of research on the mechanical properties of CFDSST members has been conducted in the recent decade, especially for the CFDSST columns shown in Figs. 1 (a) and (b), which are defined as CFDSST with the circle section and square section, respectively. The mechanical properties of CFDSST short members with the circle section subjected to axial compression are investigated in Refs. [25], and the mechanical properties of CFDSST with circular section which is subjected to axial compression and eccentricity compression and circular CFDSST members subjected to axial compression and bending moment simultaneously can be located in Refs. [68]. The mechanical properties of square CFDSST columns under eccentricity compression are investigated in Ref. [9]. The aforementioned research has built a foundation for further investigation on the mechanical properties and design theories of CFDSST members. However, in reality, considering the large consumption of steel in the connections of CFDSST columns to the girders, which has the direct influence on the economical

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Fig. 1

Typical sections of concrete-filled double-skin steel tubes Table 1 Parameters of experiment specimens

efficiency, and the apparent strain concentration in the right-angle point of the outer steel tube of square CFDSST columns, especially being subjected to the dynamic loading, the mechanical properties of CFDSST short columns with octagon section (see Fig. 2) which is subjected to the axial compression are investigated in this paper.

specimen Aso/ Ac/mm2 Asi/mm2 Aso1/Aso2 fyo/MPa fyi/MPa fck/MPa No. mm2 1 2 3 4 2016 2132 2347 2576 23203 24849 33703 42302 810 989 989 1046 0.130 0.195 0.315 0.449 300 300 300 300 325 260 260 365 37 37 37 37

Note: Aso is area of outer steel tube; Ac is area of core concrete; Asi is area of inner steel tube; fyo is yielding strength of outer steel tube; fyi is yielding strength of inner steel tube; fck is compression strength of concrete; Aso1 is area of hypotenuse of outer steel tube; Aso2 is area of vertical edge of outer steel tube.

Table 2 Characteristics value and load-capacity of experiment specimens Fig. 2 Typical section of concrete-filled double skin steel with octagon section
specimen No. 1 2 3 4 an(1022) 6.852 6.271 5.475 4.907 a(1022) 8.689 8.852 6.964 6.091 Q 0.484 0.548 0.495 0.452 Cso1/Cso2 0.137 0.201 0.320 0.445 Ne/kN 1790 1904 2580 3000

The research on the CFDSST columns with octagon section has not been conducted in previous literature until now. Based on some theoretical and experimental investigation, the mechanical properties and the calculation method of CFDSST short columns with octagon section are discussed in the paper, and hope it can shed light on related engineering practice.

Note: an is nominal steel rate, an 5 Aso/Ace; a is real steel rate, a 5 Aso/Ac; Q is hollow rate, which is ratio of outer perimeter of the inner steel tube to two relative distance of two vertical edges; Ne is axial compression capacity obtained in the test; Cso1 is hypotenuse perimeter of the outer steel tube; Cso2 is vertical perimeter of the outer steel tube.

Experimental

Considering the height-width ratio and analogy based on the width of girders, the real dimensions of the specimens are scaled down to a 5 150 mm and t 5 3 mm, with the same thickness of the inner and outer steel tubes. Four specimens which are subjected to axial compression are tested. Due to the restriction to the hollow rate [6,9], to maximize the hollow rate of sections (y 5 Di/(a + 2b 2 2t)) to obtain the maximum bending stiffness under the condition of members having the same section area, the hollow rate is set to 0.5 in the experiments, and b and Di can be defined with the available nominal steel rate [6,9]. For the length l of the specimen, 3 (l/(a + 2b)) is finalized based on the related experience in Ref. [10]. The parameters of the specimen are listed in Tables 1 and 2.

The octagonal tube in the experiment is made of two steel plates, which can be rolled industrialized directly in the steelworks. At the welding point of the steel plates, the welding line is designed as butt-weld according to the Steel Structures Design Specification for the superior strength of all welding to that of steel in members. The inner circular steel tube is adopted with the finished welding steel tube. The placing of concrete is the same as that in Ref. [9], and the batching is according to mwater : mcement : msand : mgravel 5 0.5 : 1 : 1.85 : 3.43, with 1% of cement dosage of Naphthalene series slushing agent. The concrete is cured under normal condition. The strength of 28-day concrete fcu is 55.1 MPa, which is obtained by the concrete cube test with a dimension of 15 cm 6 15 cm 6 15 cm. The experiment is conducted in the Structure Test Center of Zhejiang University of Technology. To obtain

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the accurate load-deformation curve of the components of the specimen, the special mould is adopted to locate the concentric outer and inner steel tubes and ensure that the upper and lower loading surfaces are flat and parallel to each other. In addition, the strain gauges are put symmetrically in the inner steel tube along both longitudinal and transverse directions, and the strain gauges are also put into the core concrete at the sections corresponding to the inner steel tube along the longitudinal direction. The longitudinal and transverse strain gauges are set at the upper, middle, and lower section of the outer steel tube, respectively. Simultaneously, the strain gauges are put at the sections of the hypotenuse of the outer steel tube to analyze the transformation of the hypotenuse and vertical edges. The specimen is loaded with classification, and the elastic range of each load grade is defined as 1/10 of the predefined ultimate load, and the duration is 2 min. When the tube arrives at the yield point, the load is reduced to 1/15 of the predefined ultimate load, and it is applied more slowly when the specimen is close to failure. It is observed that there are three phases for the specimen during the loading process: elastic stage, crack appearing in the core concrete and developing stability, and steel tube flexural buckling. Specimen 2 is illustrated in the following as an example. At the early stage of loading, the longitudinal strain of the upper, middle, and lower sections of the outer steel tube, the longitudinal strain of the middle section of the inner steel tube, and the longitudinal strain of the core concrete were almost the same. The strain increased linearly along with the increase of the load, and there was no obvious change in the appearance of the specimen during the elastic stage (see Fig. 3(a)). With the constantly increasing load, the pointer of the compression machine wobbled suddenly meaning cracks in the core concrete have appeared. From then on, the longitudinal strain of the core concrete became larger than that of the inner steel tube. When the load is increased further, the longitudinal strain of the hypotenuse of the outer steel tube was smaller than the one of vertical edge at the same level, the longitudinal strain of the inner tube was smaller than the one of the outer tube, and the longitudinal strain of the steel tube was a little bit smaller than the one of the concrete. When the load was increased, the cracks in the concrete expanded further, and the difference between the longitudinal strain of the core concrete and the ones of the inner and outer steel tubes enlarged, which made the support of the core concrete to the inner and outer steel tubes weaker and weaker. The local part at the vertical edge of outer steel tube yielded first with a slight knob, and followed by the local part at the hypotenuse of the outer tube while the specimen was still under loading (see Fig. 3(b)). Finally, the core concrete was broken with a lower noise, and the knob at the vertical edge of the outer steel tube appeared obviously while the knob began to show at the hypotenuse edge. Therefore, the whole specimen failed (see Fig. 3(c)).

Fig. 3 Test procedure and failure characteristics of each component of specimen 2. (a) Load reaching 400 kN; (b) load reaching 1400 kN; (c) load reaching 1904 kN; (d) failure comparison of inner and outer steel tubes; (e) failure along the surface of aggregate; (f) broken of coarse aggregate

The broken shapes of the outer steel tubes were similar for the four specimens, and it has been found that the deformation of the inner steel tube and the core concrete with increasing load was consistent, which matches well with the assumption of plane section remaining plane; while the outer steel tube and the core concrete met the same assumption only when the load is below 75%80% of the ultimate load, and the vertical and hypotenuse edges of the outer steel tube showed apparent yielding and hardening stages. The four inner steel tubes observed buckled when the outer steel tube was cut open and the concrete was peeled off. When the outer, inner steel tube and the core concrete were put together, a diagonal flexural buckled line was apparently observed (see Fig. 3(d)). The phenomenon means that it is a shear and compressive failure in the core concrete, and the two ends of the shear surface were just located in the local buckling positions of the inner and outer steel tubes. Shear and compressive

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failure surfaces of the concrete were found, some along the surface of coarse aggregate, some along the surface of cracks of concrete aggregate, which are shown in Figs. 3 (e) and (f), and it indicates that the strength of the concrete has been maximized. Figures 4 and 5 show load-strain (longitudinal and transverse, respectively) relationship of different parts of specimen 2 during the experiment. Results obtained from other specimens are basically similar to specimen 2.

The stress-strain (se) relationship is the second plasticity-rheology model, and the details of this model can be found in Ref. [12]. When the core concrete is under compression, the relationship between the stress (s) and the strain (e) along the longitudinal direction can be expressed as 8 < 2x{x2 , xf1, x y~ 1 , xw1, : bx{1g zx where, x 5 e/e0, y 5 s/s0; s0 5 fc(N/mm2); e0 5 ec + 800j0.2; e0 and s0 is the peak values of the strain and stress of the concrete, respectively; ec 5 1300 + 12.5fc, the value of fc is fc0:2 , j is the based on Ref. [10]; g 5 1.6 + 1.5/x, b~ p restriction domino effect coefficient, j 5 anfyo/fck 5 Asofyo/(Acefck), Aso and fyo is the section area and yielding strength, respectively, of the outer steel tube. To obtain theoretical stress-strain curve, contact element is used between the interface of the inner, outer steel tube and the core concrete; and related parameters are set based on the experiential concluding remarks in Refs. [13 15]. No relative slide between the inner, outer steel tube and core concrete is assumed to obtain the ultimate load of members. Based on the aforementioned method, the obtained ultimate load is approximately 80% of the experimental value when the contact element is used between the interface of the inner, outer steel tube and core concrete. In addition, the deformation of the inner, outer steel tube and core concrete is consistent, which basically meets the assumption of plane surface remaining plane, and it matches well with the results obtained from the experiment. Therefore, the load-strain relationship curves of the components of CFDSST members subjected to axial compression can be replaced by one curve, and the theoretical and experimental load-strain relationship curves of specimens 2 and 3 are given in Figs. 6 and 7. It can be observed from Figs. 6 and 7 that the obtained load-strain relationship model based on the aforementioned constitutive law and the interface handling method matches well with experimental results, and it indicates that the constitutive law for the aforementioned materials is reasonable. Based on this constitutive law model, ignoring the relative slide of the inner, outer steel tube and core concrete, the ultimate load and the experimental values are compared in Table 3.
Table 3 Comparison of load-capacity with experiment and numerical simulation
specimen No. 1 2 3 4 Nc1/kN 1634 1723 2243 2760 Ne/kN 1790 1904 2580 3000 Nc1/Ne 0.913 0.905 0.908 0.920
1:2 1zj

Fig. 4 Load-longitudinal strain relationship of different parts of specimen 2

Fig. 5 Load-cross strain relations of outer tube of test specimen 2

Load-deformation relationship analyses

The specialized finite element model [11] of the stressstrain relationship for the concrete-filled steel tube (CFST) which is subjected to axial compression is used in this paper. The stress-strain relationship of steel in Ref. [12] is adopted, and the commercial finite element software ANSYS is used to analyze the mechanical properties of CFDSST short members with the octagon section subjected to axial compression.

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of specimen 3. Therefore, analysis of the parameter b1 is the same as the hollow rate. Based on restriction on the range of hollow rates in Refs. [6,9], the hollow rates adopted in this numerical simulation are 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, corresponding to b1 values of 7.5 6 1022, 1.63 6 1021, 2.51 6 1021, 3.38 6 1021, 4.25 6 1021, respectively. Comparison of ultimate load obtained from the numerical simulation and the experimental formula is shown in Fig. 8.

Fig. 6 Comparison of relationships of load-longitudinal strain of specimen 2

Fig. 8 Influence of area ratios of inner tubes to outer tubes on load-capacity

Fig 7. Comparison of relationships of load-longitudinal strain of specimen 3

4 Derivation of axial compression loadcapacity formula of CFDSST with octagon section

Based on the results obtained from the numerical simulation, axial compression load-capacity of the CFDSST short columns with the octagon section can be calculated. To derive more reasonable load-capacity formula of this kind of members, considering variety of hollow rates of different specimens is very small and diverse length ratio of the hypotenuse to the vertical edge of the outer steel tubes is big, the numerical simulations are conducted for specimen 3 with different hollow rates based on the reasonable stress-strain relationship, and area ratio of the inner tubes to the outer tubers is expressed as the parameter b1. When the influence of the parameter b1 is analyzed, the dimensions of the outer steel tube are the same as the one

The formula for calculating the load-capacity of CFDSST members with the octagonal section subjected to axial compression is proposed in Ref. [16]. Based on the results obtained from the numerical simulation and experiment, the strength of the inner steel tube of the CFDSST short columns with the octagonal section and subjected to axial compression is fully employed when the specimen fails. In addition, difference of the lengths of the hypotenuse and vertical edges of the outer steel tube should be considered in the formula. Thus, Eqs. (2) and (3) are proposed to calculate the load-capacity of the octagon CFDSST short columns subjected to axial compression as where Nu ~Asc fscy zAsi fyi ,   Cso1 an 2 j fck , fscy ~ 1:13z0:90jz0:45 Cso2 a 2 3

and Asc 5 Aso + Ac, Cso1 5 4a, Cso2 5 4b, j 5 anfyo/fck 5 Asofyo/(Acefck). Based on Eqs. (2) and (3), the load-capacity, experimental and numerical results are compared in Table 3. Compared with the results from the experiment, the average ratio is 0.962 with the mean square deviation of 0.037; while compared with the results from the numerical simulation, the average ratio is 1.065 with the mean square deviation of 0.026. It shows that the results from the simplified formula match well with

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those obtained from the experiment and numerical simulation. The results are still conservative than those obtained from experiment. The formula of calculating the load-capacity of circular CFDSST members subjected to axial compression is proposed in Ref. [6] while the square CFDSST in Ref. [9], and the restrictive conditions are defined for their application, respectively. Since the octagon CFDSST lies between the circular and square CFDSST members, the restrictive conditions should be between the two. The conditions in Refs. [6] and [9] are basically the same, and considering the outer steel tube of octagon CFDSST is welded with the steel plates, thus, the mechanical properties of octagon CFDSST is closer to the square CFDSST, which means its restrictive conditions are nearer to the square one during the application. Thus, the conditions of Eqs. (2) and (3) are given as: concrete strength rate C30C60, steel strength rate Q235Q390, nominal steel rate 0.050.20, hollow rate 00.5, and length-slender ratio10150.

columns can be used in the load-capacity design of this kind of members.

References
1. Han Linhai. Concrete filled steel Tubular Structure. Beijing: Science Press, 2000 (in Chinese) 2. Wei S, Mau S T, Vipulanandan C, et al. Performance of new sandwich tube under axial loading: experiment. Journal of Structural Engineering, 1995, 121(12): 18061814 3. Wei S, Mau S T, Vipulanandan C, et al. Performance of new sandwich tube under axial loading: analysis. Journal of Structural Engineering, 1995, 121(12): 18151821 4. Zhao X L, Grzebieta R, Elchalakani M. Tests of concretefilled double skin circular hollow sections. In: First International Confererence on Steel & Composite Structures, Pusan, Korea. 2001, 283290 5. Wright H, Odyemi T, Evans H R. The experimental behavior of double skin composite elements. Journal of Constructional Steel Rerearch, 1991, 19: 9110 6. Tao Zhong, Han Linhai, Huang Hong. Mechanical behavior of concrete filled double skin steel tubular columns with circular sections. China Civil Engineering Journal, 2004, 37(10): 4151 (in Chinese) 7. Yagishita F, Kitoh H, Sugimoto M, et al. Double skin composite tubular columns subjected to cyclic horizontal force and constant axial force. In: Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Steel and Concrete Composite Structures, USA. 2000, 497503 8. Cai Kequan, Lin Yuxiang, Lin Minlang. The test of concrete filled double skin steel tubular columns and its foundations. In: Proceedings of the 2nd Two Sides of the Taiwan Straits and Hong Kong Conference on Steel Structure, Taibei, China. 2001, 7788 (in Chinese) 9. Tao Zhong, Han Linhai, Huang Hong. Concrete filled double skin steel tubular column with square section under eccentric loads. China Civil Engineering Journal, 2003, 36(2): 3340 (in Chinese) 10. Tao Zhong. A new explore for the research and application of concrete filled double skin steel tubular column. Journal of Engineering Mechanics, 2002(S): 577580 (in Chinese) 11. Liu Wei, Han Linhai. Investigation in some problems of behaviors of concrete-filled steel tubes subject axial local compression by ABAQUS method. Journal of Harbin University of Technology, 2005, 37(S): 157160 (in Chinese) 12. Han Linhai. Concrete Filled Steel Tubular Structures from Theory to Practice. Beijing: Science Press, 2004(in Chinese) 13. ROEDER C W, Cameron B. Composite action in concrete filled tubes. Journal of Structural Engineering, 1999, 125(5): 477484 14. Baltay P, Gjelsvik A. Coefficient of friction for steel on concrete at high normal stress. Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering, 1920, 2(1): 4649 15. Morishta Y, Tomii M, Yoshimura K. Experimental studies on bond strength in concrete filled square and octagonal steel tubular columns subjected to axial loads. Transactions of Japan Concrete Institute, 1979, b: 359336 16. Zhong Shantong. Concrete Filled Steel Tubular Structure. Beijing: Tsinghua University Press, 2003 (in Chinese)

Conclusions

Based on the detailed investigation on the mechanical properties of CFDSST short columns with octagonal section and subjected to the axial compression load, and the results are obtained from the experiment and finite element simulation, the following conclusions can be made: 1) During the whole loading process, the inner steel tube works consistently with the core concrete, and the plane section remains plane; the outer steel tube can work corporately with the core concrete when the applied loading is lower than 75% of the ultimate load. 2) For the CFDSST members, it can keep bearing the load until the core concrete is broken, and at the same time, some local parts of steel tubes begin to yield. After that, the member will fail. 3) Before the member failure, the apparent hardening stage appears in the inner, outer steel tubes and the hypotenuse of the outer tubes. The steel strength is fully used, and there is no waste for the existence of the hypotenuse of the outer steel tubes. 4) The concrete stress-strain relationship proposed in Ref. [11], and the steel stress-strain relationship given in Ref. [12] are adopted well to analyze the mechanical properties of this type of members, the results match well with those obtained from the experiment. 5) Equations (2) and (3) of calculating the axial compression load-capacity of octagon CFDSST short

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