Thin-Walled Structures 140 (2019) 1–20

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Thin-Walled Structures
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Full length article

Experimental investigation on the cyclic behaviors of ultra-high- T

performance steel fiber reinforced concrete filled thin-walled steel tubular
columns
Shenchun Xua, Chengqing Wuc, , Zhongxian Liub, , Ruizhe Shaob
⁎ ⁎

a
School of Civil Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300372, China
b
Tianjin Key Laboratory of Civil Structure Protection and Reinforcement, Tianjin Chengjian University, Tianjin 300384, China
c
Centre for Built Infrastructure Research, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, NSW 2007, Australia

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: This paper presents an experimental investigation on the cyclic behaviors of ultra-high performance steel fiber
Ultra-high-performance concrete filled thin- reinforced concrete filled thin-walled steel tubular columns under combined axial compression and cyclic lateral
walled steel tubular columns displacement loading. The failure modes, hysteretic behaviors, envelop diagrams, ductile performance, stiffness
Cyclic behavior degradation and energy dissipation capacity were analyzed in detail. Notably, the cyclic behaviors of referenced
Experimental investigations
high strength concrete and normal strength concrete filled thin-walled steel tubular columns were also studied to
High strength concrete
get a better illustration of the cyclic behaviors of ultra-high-performance steel fiber reinforced concrete filled
Effects of main variables
thin-walled steel tubular columns. Furthermore, the effects of steel tube thickness, axial compression ratio,
volume ratio of steel fiber and slenderness on the cyclic behaviors of ultra-high-performance steel fiber re-
inforced concrete filled thin-walled steel tubular columns were also investigated in detail. The test results in-
dicate that the high strength concrete filled thin-walled steel tubular columns represent a poor cyclic behavior.
However, replacing high strength concrete with ultra-high performance steel fiber reinforced concrete to infill
thin-walled steel tubes can get an excellent cyclic behavior. Moreover, the cyclic behavior of ultra-high per-
formance steel fiber reinforced concrete filled thin-walled steel tubular columns is also much better than that of
normal strength concrete filled thin-walled steel tubular columns.

1. Introduction
Normal strength concrete (NSC) presents several inherent dis-
advantages that are difficult to be remedied, such as low tensile
strength, toughness and its brittle nature. Specially, its brittle properties
become more notable with the increase in the compressive strength,
especially for high strength concrete (HSC, 60 MPa ≤ compressive
strength ≤ 100 MPa) [1,2]. However, HSC has been widely used in the
construction of modern buildings and bridges around the world in re-
cent years. Therefore, the notably adverse effluence of its brittle
property on the seismic performance of structural components needs to
be further addressed. Researchers have made efforts to improve the
brittle nature of HSC in terms of material properties, and filling con-
crete in steel tube, which forms HSC filled steel tube (HSCFST), is one
general method of improving the brittle properties of HSC [3,4].
Over the last two decades, HSCFST has been widely used in the large
span and high-rise structures to reduce the cross section of components,
increase the available space of structures and decrease the self-weight
of structure. However, when the confinement coefficient of a HSCFST
column subjected to a low cyclic loading is less, the core concrete ex-
hibits a brittle shear failure mode resulting in a reduction in ductility of
the column [4–6]. Varma et al. [7,8] also found increasing the steel
tube b/t (width-to-thickness) ratio reduced cyclic curvature ductility of
high strength concrete filled square steel tube columns significantly.
The ductile performance of columns acting as the main bearing member
has a great effect on the seismic performance of the whole structure.
Therefore, it is eager to improve the ductility of HSC filled thin-walled
steel tubular columns further. Recent investigations [9–11] indicate
that the properties of core concrete could significantly affect the duc-
tility of concrete filled steel tubular (CFST) columns and a higher
ductility can be achieved by replacing NSC with steel fiber reinforced
concrete (SFRC). Furthermore, other researches show that the same
effect on the HSCFST columns could be achieved by the addition of steel
fibers in the matrix [12–14]. In the seismic performance, Chen [15]

⁎
Corresponding authors.
E-mail addresses: Chengqing.wu@uts.edu.au (C. Wu), zhongxian1212@163.com (Z. Liu).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tws.2019.03.008
Received 28 May 2018; Received in revised form 18 January 2019; Accepted 4 March 2019
0263-8231/ © 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
S. Xu, et al. Thin-Walled Structures 140 (2019) 1–20

directly figured out that the seismic performance of steel fiber re- Table 2
inforced HSC filled steel tubular (SFRHSCFST) column is much better Properties of fly ash.
than that of HSCFST column. Therefore, it is comparatively of avail- Properties Description
ability to improve the seismic performance of the HSC filled thin-walled
steel tubular columns by adding steel fibers to HSC. Classification F
Grade First grade
As an innovative composite material, compared with steel fiber
Component SiO2, Al2O3, Fe2O3, CaO, K2O
reinforced HSC (SFRHSC), ultra-high performance steel fiber reinforced Al2O3 (%) 22.14
concrete (UHPSFRC) presents more extraordinary properties, i.e. su- SiO2 (%) 52.87
perior compressive (≥150 MPa) and tensile strength, excellent ducti- Average particle size (μm) 0.5–10
lity, toughness and energy dissipation capacity [16–23]. Therefore, Specific surface area (m2 g−1) 3

UHPSFRC is a more excellent filling material for CFST columns com-

pared with SFRHSC and it is reasonable to improve the seismic per-
formance of concrete filled thin-walled steel tubular columns by re-
placing the infilled HSC with UHPSFRC [24–27].
Investigations on the behavior of SFRCFST columns under axial
loading or cyclic lateral loading have been conducted and some
achievements have been made. However, the investigation on the cyclic
behavior of UHPSFRC filled thin-walled steel tubular columns under
combined axial compression and lateral loading is still limited, espe-
cially for the compressive strength beyond 150 MPa. Therefore, the
cyclic behavior of UHPSFRC filled thin-walled steel tubular columns
including nine cantilever-type specimens was investigated in this study.
In addition, for reference, the cyclic behaviors of HSC (C80) and one
NSC (C30) filled thin-walled steel tubular column were also in-
vestigated to get a better illustration for the UHPSFRC filled thin-walled
steel tubular columns. The failure modes, hysteretic behavior, envelop
loops, ductile performance, stiffness degradation and the energy dis-
sipation capacity of the specimens were extensively presented.
Fig. 1. Slump flow test.
Eventually, the influences of main design variables including steel tube
thickness, axial compression ratio, volume ratio of steel fiber and
slenderness on the cyclic behavior of UHPSFRC filled thin-walled steel UHPC when the volume ratio is below 1% and the workability of UHPC
tubular columns were analyzed in detail. was deteriorated when the volume ratio is beyond 2.5%. However, the
mechanical properties of UHPC could be improved effectively and its
workability could be acceptable when the volume ratio is about 2%.
2. Experimental program Therefore, smooth steel fibers (Fig. 2) with 2% volume ratio of the total
volume of mixture were added to the concrete mixture and the properties
2.1. Materials of smooth steel fibers can be found in Table 3. The mix proportion design
of UHPSFRC, HSC and NSC (per m3) is listed in Table 4.
High sulfur resistant cement (the content of C3A is below 3%) with Han [28] figured out that high-grade concrete should be utilized in
a 28-day nominal compressive strength of 42.5 MPa was used as the combination with high strength steel (yield strength ≥345 MPa) tube
binder material in this research to improve the internal microscopic to exploit advantages of the both components furthest. Therefore, high
structure and to further achieve excellent mechanical properties. Silica strength steel (Q345B) was employed in order to make full use of
fume was chosen as a supplementary cementitious material to improve properties of UHPSFRC and steel tube more efficiently. Fig. 3 shows the
the microstructure of the hardened cement paste since it has excellent complete stress-strain curve averaged for three tensile coupon tests and
pozzolanic activity effect and micro-aggregate effect [27]. The prop- Table 5 summarizes the mechanical properties of steel tube used in this
erties of silica fume are listed in Table 1. Meanwhile, to improve the research, where E is the Young's modulus, fy is the yield strength and fu
internal micro-structure and the interfacial properties, fly ash with is the ultimate strength.
micro-spheres was added into the mixture. The properties of fly ash are
listed in Table 2. It is worth noting that the use of fly ash with micro-
spheres could also reduce environmental pollution produced, which is
accordant with environmental protection concepts.
Washed river sand made up of naturally graded with a maximum
aggregate size of 0.6 mm (0.3–0.6 mm) was used as fine aggregates.
Polycarboxylic type superplasticizer (SP) with a specific gravity of
1080 kg/m3 was added to the concrete mixture to achieve the required
concrete workability with an average slump flow of 210 mm (Fig. 1). In
addition, lots of tests conducted previously by the authors indicated that
the steel fiber could not effectively improve the mechanical properties of

Table 1
Properties of silica fume.
Properties Description

Component SiO2, Al2O3, Fe2O3, MgO, CaO

Average particle size (μm) 0.1–0.3
Specific surface area (m2 g−1) 20–28
Fig. 2. Dimension of steel fibers.

2
S. Xu, et al. Thin-Walled Structures 140 (2019) 1–20

Table 3
Properties of steel fiber.
Diameter(mm) Length(mm) Tensile strength(MPa)

0.12 10 > 4000

2.2. Specimens design and fabrication

Low cyclic loading tests on a total of eleven cantilever-type column

specimens with a 250 mm square cross section including nine columns
filled with UHPSFRC and two referenced columns filled with HSC and
NSC alone were conducted and are described herein. As illustrated in
Fig. 4, every specimen includes three parts which are the column with a
rectangle cross-section of 250 mm × 250 mm, the footing with dimen-
sion of 500 mm × 500 mm× 1300 mm and the column cap.
A footing with a large relative stiffness was designed to make sure
that the column was fixed without rotation and slip. Meanwhile, suf-
ficient reinforcement was designed for the rigid base to ensure that the
footing would not be failed in advance during the test. In addition, a
column cap with dimension of 350 mm × 350 mm× 350 mm, which
was in accordance with the size of test loading device, was also set up to
prevent the column from local compression failure and to apply the
constant vertical and cyclic lateral loading conveniently. Similarly,
sufficient reinforcements were embedded in the column cap to guar-
antee its stiffness. It was particularly noteworthy that the effective test
length of the specimen was measured from the point of application of
lateral load to the upper surface of the footing.
In order to reduce the adverse effect of stress concentration in the
corners of the test specimens on the steel, two U-shaped steel plates
were united to fabricate the steel tube by the welding seams in the
middle of the column cross-section instead of fillet weld located in the
corners. In addition, four stiffeners were welded to the steel tube for
each specimen to strengthen the stiffness of steel tube and the size of
the stiffener is 450mm × 350mm × 8mm . All the nine UHPSFRC filled
thin-walled steel tubular columns were casted by utilizing the same mix
proportion of UHPSFRC listed in Table 4.
Before the concrete pouring, it was necessary to complete the fol-
lowing processes, such as level the concrete formwork, place the steel
tube, assemble reinforcement and concrete formwork. Meanwhile, a
plumb was adopted to guarantee the verticality of the specimens since
vertical casting mode was employed. In order to guarantee the proper
filling and compactness of concrete, the concrete should be poured into
steel tube layer by layer. Furthermore, it was also necessary to vibrate
the concrete by utilizing the vibrator inside and outside the steel tube
continuously. Fig. 5 shows the process of fabricating the specimens.
In addition, twelve UHPSFRC cubes (100mm × 100mm × 100mm )
for each specimen were taken from each mixture to record the 28-day
and the tested day compressive strength, respectively. Another six
cubes (100mm × 100mm × 400mm ) were utilized to test the flexural
strength according to CECS 38 [29] and the test results are listed in
Table 5.
Table 6 gives a summary of details of each specimen. In this table,
all listed material parameter values were obtained by averaging the
related measured values compliant with the test standards [29] as
plotted in Fig. 6.
The axial compression ratio (nt ) in this paper is computationally
Fig. 3. Stress–strain relationship of steel tube.
Table 5
Mechanical properties of steel tube.
Steel grade E(GPa) fy (MPa) fu (MPa)
Q345B 205 360 526.8
decided as follows:
nt = N / Nu (1)
where N is the actually applied axial compressive load. Particularly, Nu
is the nominal ultimate axial compressive bearing capacity of the spe-
cimen which can be calculated as a summation of the axial capacities of
both the steel and concrete as described as Eq. (2) [30]:
Nu = f y × As + 0.85fc × Acon (2)
fc = 0.79fcu (3)
in which fc is the cylinder strength of unconfined concrete, fcu is the
cubic compressive strength of unconfined concrete, As and Acon are the
cross-sectional areas of the steel tube and the filled-in concrete, re-
spectively. In addition, slenderness (λ) is calculated as = 2 3 H / D , in
which H is the effective test length of the column and D is the width of
cross section, respectively. All the above details satisfy the requirements
of codes CECS 28 [31] and GB 50010 [32].
The variables in this test matrix were the steel tube thickness
(t = 4 mm, 5 mm, 6 mm), slenderness (λ = 10.4, 17.3, 24.2), axial
compression ratio (nt =0.12, 0.24, 0.36), volume ratio of steel fibers (vf
=0, 1%, 2%) and types of concrete. The properties of tested specimens
are listed in Table 6.
2.3. Test setup
The columns were tested under constant axial compression and in-
crementally increasing lateral displacement reversals simulating
seismic loading. The test setup and details of instrumentations are
shown in Fig. 7. The compressive loading was applied by a 5000 kN
self-balancing loading system, and the cyclic lateral loading was ap-
plied on the load point using a 2000 kN electro-hydraulic servo ma-
chine after the axial compression force on the specimens stabilized.

Table 4
Proportions of the used UHPSFRC, HSC and NSC mixtures (per m3).
UHPSFRC Cement (kg) Fly ash (kg) Silica fume (kg) Washed Sand (kg) Superplasticizer (kg) W/B (%) Water(kg)
550 412.5 137.5 1100 8 18 198
HSC Cement (kg) Fly ash (kg) Coarse aggregate (kg) Washed sand (kg) Superplasticizer (kg) W/B (%) Water (kg)
440 110 670 1006 1.6 30 165
NSC Cement (kg) Coarse aggregate(kg) Washed sand (kg) Superplasticizer (kg) W/B (%) Water (kg)
461 512 1250 1.6 38 175

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S. Xu, et al.
Fig. 4. Details of test specimens (unit: mm).
Particularly, two hinges were setup to ensure that the system moved
together with the specimen in testing precisely. The devices of ground
reaction force and steel beams were used to prevent the foundation of
the columns from sliding under the cyclic lateral loads.
All the specimens were instrumented with linear variable differ-
ential transformers (LVDTs) and strain gauges to measure the lateral
displacement, anchorage slips, axial and hoop strains on both steel
tubes as plotted in Fig. 7 and Fig. 8. It is important to record the dis-
placement of the lateral loading point for evaluating the hysteretic
behavior of the specimen in a low cyclic loading test. Therefore, two
LVDTs (NO.1 and NO. 2) were placed on the lateral loading point to
precisely monitor the horizontal displacement of the tested specimen.
Since a slight gap may exist between the horizontal loading end and the
specimen surface, the values of NO. 1 and NO. 2 LVDTs may experience
a sudden jump. In order to avoid this deviation, two more LVDTs (NO. 3
and NO. 4) were set up on the 0.7 height of specimen and it can also
inverse the displacement of the horizontal loading point in case of
failure occurred in NO. 1 and NO. 2 LVDTs. In addition, to eliminate the
negative effect of the relative displacement occurred in the specimen
and column pier on the hysteretic behavior of the specimen, two more
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Thin-Walled Structures 140 (2019) 1–20
LVDTs (NO.5 and NO.6) were placed on one side of the column pier to
measure the horizontal displacement of the column stub.
Based on the slenderness, two different numbers of strain gages
were adopted to measure the axial and hoop strains on steel tubes. A
total of 18 strain gages were attached onto the steel tubes for the spe-
cimens with slenderness of 10.4, 28 strain gages for the specimens with
slenderness of 17.3 and 24.2. Besides, half of the strain gages were
setup on the steel tube surface parallel to the load direction and the
other half were attached onto the surface perpendicular to the load
direction, as illustrated in Fig. 8. The results from the strain gages will
be used in another study.
2.4. Test procedure
A predicted axial compressive load was applied to the specimen
before horizontal cyclic loading test. Firstly, with the speed of 1 kN/s,
100 kN axial compression was applied to eliminate the gap between the
vertical loading end and the specimen top surface so as to make sure
that there was no significant eccentricity by checking the values re-
corded by strain gages. Then the predetermined axial compressive load
S. Xu, et al. Thin-Walled Structures 140 (2019) 1–20

Fig. 5. The process of fabricating specimens.

was applied with the speed of 2 kN/s. Afterwards, a small lateral force with a controlled periodical displacements load as shown in Fig. 9 after
was applied several times at this stage in order to stabilize the test above preparations completed. One cycle was imposed with the fol-
system. All specimens were tested by the low cyclic tests carried out lowing peak drift values ( ± %): 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1. When it was

Table 6
Properties of tested specimens.
Specimen code D×t × H (mm) fcu(MPa) ff(MPa) λ nt Axial Load (kN) vf (%)

28 day Tested day 28 day Tested day

SpeUTH4 250 × 4 × 1250 149.3 152.6 30.2 31.3 17.3 0.24 1736.4 2
SpeUTH5 250 × 5 × 1250 150.9 155.4 29.4 32.6 17.3 0.24 1798.1 2
SpeUTH6 250 × 6 × 1250 146.8 152.2 28.5 31.5 17.3 0.24 1854.2 2
SpeUCR12 250 × 5 × 1250 147.4 150.4 31.2 32.4 17.3 0.12 899.1 2
SpeUCR36 250 × 5 × 1250 148.6 151.3 33.0 35.2 17.3 0.36 2697.2 2
SpeUSlR104 250 × 6 × 750 151.7 154.5 30.6 32.2 10.4 0.24 1854.2 2
SpeUSlR242 250 × 6 × 1750 153.2 156.7 28.6 31.4 24.2 0.24 1854.2 2
SpeUVF1 250 × 4 × 1250 152.6 154.8 29.5 31.5 17.3 0.24 1741.6 1
SpeUVF0 250 × 4 × 1250 148.2 150.5 30.7 33.0 17.3 0.24 1741.6 0
SpeHSC80 250 × 4 × 1250 80.2 82 6.2 6.2 17.3 0.24 1081 0
SpeNSC30 250 × 5 × 1250 32 32 4.5 4.5 17.3 0.24 684.2 0

Note: The UHPSFRC filled thin-walled steel tubular columns were identified by the notation “Spe” followed closely by the variables to be studied, such as “U” refers to
UHPSFRC, “TH” refers to the steel tube thickness (TH4 =4, TH5 =4 and TH6 =6), “SlR” indicates the slenderness (SlR104 =10.4, SlR173 =17.3 and
SlR242 =24.2), “CR” refers to the nominal axial load ratio (CR12 =0.12, CR24 =0.24 and CR36 =0.36), and “VF” refers to the volume ratio of steel fiber (VF0 =0,
VF1 =1.0% and VF2 =2.0%). The HSC and NSC filled thin-walled steel tubular column is designated as SpeHSC80 and SpeNSC30, respectively.

5
S. Xu, et al.
Fig. 6. UHPSFRC static test and results.
beyond 1%, three cycles were adopted and the increment was increased
to 0.75%. When the horizontal bearing capacity dropped to 85% of the
peak lateral load or the specimen cannot resist the predicted axial
compressive load, the test was terminated immediately.
3. Test results
3.1. Experimental observations
In general, the failure modes, presented on the appearance, of the
specimens infilled with UHPSFRC is similar to that of the referenced HSC
or NSC filled thin-walled steel tubular columns. All the specimens de-
veloped plastic hinges near the base stub with local bucking occurring in
this zone, specific performance as follows: (1) the steel tubes exhibit
bulge and buckling; (2) cracks appear at the corner of the steel tubes, and
even butt weld fracture. However, the buckling process of the specimens
without steel fibers behaved differently as compared to those with larger
volume ratio of steel fibers. Specifically, for the specimens with larger
volume ratio of steel fibers (SpeUTH4, SpeUVF1), no local buckling before
longitudinal yield of the steel was observed; while for the specimens
without steel fibers (SpeUVF0, SpeHSC80) local buckling occurred before
the steel yielding. This indicates that the steel fibers could effectively
avoid premature local buckling caused by insufficient thickness of the
steel tube. In addition, it may indicate that the three kinds of concrete
represent different damage evolution, and this affects the buckling of
steel tube. Particularly, for the specimens SpeUTH4, SpeUTH5, SpeUTH6,
SpeUCR12, SpeUCR36, SpeUSlR104, SpeUSlR242，SpeUVF1 and
SpeNSC30, when the drift ratios achieved to 1–1.75%, 1–1.75%,
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Thin-Walled Structures 140 (2019) 1–20
0.75–1%, 1.75–2.5%, 0.75–1%, 0.75–1%, 2.5–3.25%, 1–1.75% and
1.75–2.5%, respectively, visible local buckling can be observed on the
compression region of the steel tube after yielding of the steel. However,
the local buckling of specimens SpeUVF0 and SpeHSC80 occurred at drift
ratio 0.75–1.0% followed by yielding of the steel tube. Subsequently,
when the lateral load was reversed, the initial local buckling could return
to the original state, but the opposite flange exhibited local buckling.
Furthermore, the local buckling become gradually severe with the in-
crease of lateral displacement and cannot be subsequently recovered.
Fig. 10 shows the failure modes of the specimens, in which only the
local pictures, about 1/3 height of the whole specimen, are exhibited
for a better illustration. It shows that the most extensive damage re-
gions almost extended to 200 mm from the stub interface randomly.
However, the most damage critical sections are not located on the bases
of the columns but a certain distance away from the stub interface.
Therefore, Fig. 10 illustrates that, similar to the observations reported
previously [33–37], the stub effect could shift the most damaged cri-
tical column section from the interface once again.
As can also be seen in Fig. 10, the two butt welds utilized to connect
the steel tubes of specimens with 4 mm steel tube thickness are frac-
tured except SpeUVF1 with serious cracking at the corner of steel tube.
Furthermore, similar to the specimen SpeNSC30, the series specimens
with 6 mm thickness of steel tube just experienced slight corner
cracking whereas the butt weld still remained integrity. However, butt
weld fracture or corner crack could be observed on the specimens with
5 mm steel tube thickness. Therefore, it indicates that whether corners
cracking or butt weld fracture occurred on the steel tube is dominated
by the steel tube thickness and the volume ratio of steel fibers. Specific
S. Xu, et al. Thin-Walled Structures 140 (2019) 1–20

Fig. 7. Test setup.

performance as follows: (1) when the minor steel tube thickness was reversed failure was observed on the specimens without steel fibers; (2)
employed, butt weld fracture instead of serious corner cracking oc- when the steel tube thickness reaches 5 mm and the volume ratio of
curred on the steel tubes of specimens with steel fibers whereas steel fibers achieves to 2%, the corner cracking and butt weld fracture

Fig. 8. Layout of strain gages setup.

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S. Xu, et al. Thin-Walled Structures 140 (2019) 1–20

columns. It is noted that the symbols “ ” and “ ”in these diagrams

signify the yielding of steel and the onset of the visible local buckling on
the steel tube, respectively. In addition, Table 7 shows the characteristic
points, such as the yielding point (YP), buckling point (BP) and peak
point (PP). In this table, the coordinate X means drift ratio and Y re-
presents the corresponding lateral force.
The following conclusions can be drawn after careful observation of
Fig. 12 and Table 7:

(1) Similar to the specimen SpeNSC30, the plump hysteretic loops,

which indicate great energy dissipation, could be derived for the
specimens filled with UHPSFRC. However, the specimen SpeHSC80
Fig. 9. Loading procedure of lateral force. and SpeUVF0 significantly exhibit narrow hysteretic loops which
indicate poor energy dissipation ability of the specimens. It de-
monstrates that sudden brittle failure would occur on the HSC filled
was turned mitigation; (3) eventually, if just increase the steel tube
thin-walled steel tubular columns suffered from strong earthquake
thickness to 6 mm and keep the volume ratio of steel fibers remaining
attacking and cannot effectively resist the seismic loading by uti-
2%, only light corner cracking whereas no butt weld fracture was ob-
lizing its energy dissipation ability. However, the UHPSFRC filled
served. It is particularly noteworthy that, unlike the specimen
thin-walled steel tubular columns exhibit better hysteretic perfor-
SpeHSC80 and SpeUVF0, butt weld fracture indeed occurred on several
mances.
specimens casted with UHPSFRC, but the strength of the specimens
(2) By comparing Fig. 12(a), (b) and (c), it can be concluded that the
above did not suddenly decrease. Therefore, it is recommended in
hysteretic loops become plumper with the increase of steel tube
practical design that the volume ratio of steel fiber should be greater
thickness, which indicates that the specimens with greater steel
than or equal to 2% and the thickness of steel tube should be greater
tube thickness could dissipate more earthquake input energy. Spe-
than or equal to 5 mm to reduce the damage of the specimens in the
cially, the hysteretic loop of the specimen SpeUTH4 (steel tube
maximum extent.
thickness = 4) shows a pinching effect because of the lower con-
Fig. 11 shows the surfaces of infilled concrete after the outer steel
finement provided by the thin-walled steel tube to the core con-
tube was removed. As can be seen in Fig. 11, significant separation
crete. Furthermore, the lateral loading capacity increases with the
between the steel tube and infilled core concrete could be observed for
steel tube thickness increasing. Compared with the specimen
the specimen SpeUVF0 and SpeHSC80, while for other specimens, si-
SpeUTH4 (steel tube thickness = 4), the lateral loading capacity of
milar phenomena are not observed. It indicates that the interfacial
the specimens SpeTH5 (steel tube thickness = 5) and SpeUTH6
transition zone between UHPSFRC and the steel tube represents good
(steel tube thickness = 6) increases 18.5% and 28.8%, respectively.
bonding properties. In other words, compared to HSC, UHPSFRC has a
(3) Fig. 12(b), (d) and (e) shows that similar to the specimen SpeUTH5
better ability to collaboratively work together with steel tube.
(axial compression ratio=0.12), the hysteretic loops of the speci-
It also clearly illustrates that the infilled UHPSFRC represents a
mens suffered from higher axial compression ratio (0.24 and 0.36)
certain degree of completeness whereas the NSC and HSC are almost
are also plump. Furthermore, the lateral loading capacity increases
crushed. In detail, one horizontal main crack accompanied with cru-
with the increase of axial compression ratio. Compared with the
shed concrete located at the end is observed on all infilled UHPSFRC. In
specimen SpeUCR12 (axial compression ratio = 0.12), the lateral
this opinion, it means that the failure mode of specimens fabricated
loading capacity of the specimens SpeUTH5 (axial compression
with UHPSFRC is compressive-flexural failure. However, no main hor-
ratio = 0.24) and SpeUCR36 (axial compression ratio = 0.36) in-
izontal main crack but crushed and spalling concrete is presented on the
creases 18.0% and 34.7%, respectively. However, the ultimate drift
specimens casted with NSC and HSC. By contrast, the spalling concrete
ratio (lateral displacement) decreases with the increase of axial
quality and the size of spalling concrete fragments of specimen SpeUVF0
compression ratio significantly. This may indicate that the ductility
and SpeHSC80 is greater than that of specimen SpeNSC30. Furthermore,
decreases with the increase of axial compression ratio and it will be
the macroscopic failure of core concrete verifies the point that the da-
discussed in the following sections.
mage evolution of the three kinds of concrete is different.
(4) As described above, the addition of steel fibers could convert the
Furthermore, as described above [9–11], the core concrete has a
hysteretic loops of UHPSFRC filled thin-walled steel tubular col-
great effect on the performance of CFST columns under axial com-
umns changing from narrow to plump and Fig. 12(a), (f) and (g)
pression. Especially, the axial residual bearing capacity of CFST col-
confirms the conclusion again. Besides, the lateral loading capacity
umns decreases with the deterioration of concrete after steel tube
of the specimen with steel fiber is improved in comparison with the
buckling. Meanwhile, based on the axial residual bearing capacity of RC
specimen without steel fibers, i.e., compared to the specimen
columns, Ding et al. [38] developed a new method to assess the seismic
SpeUVF0 (without steel fiber), the lateral loading capacity of the
damage of RC columns. Therefore, based on the observed core concrete
specimen SpeUVF1 (steel fiber volume ratio = 1%) and SpeUTH4
damage, it can be concluded that residual axial bearing capacity of NSC
(steel fiber volume ratio = 2%) increases 11.9% and 7.3%, re-
or HSC filled thin-walled steel tubular columns could be much smaller
spectively. However, little difference exists in the lateral loading
than that of UHPSFRC filled thin-walled steel tubular columns. In other
capacity of the specimens with steel fibers.
words, UHPSFRC filled thin-walled steel tubular columns have a greater
(5) The hysteretic loops of the UHPSFRC filled thin-walled steel tubular
damage tolerance.
specimens with different slenderness are all plump, even if the short
column as shown in Fig. 12(c), (h) and (i). This may be attributed to
3.2. Hysteretic behavior and lateral bearing capacity the reinforcement effect of steel fibers. Meanwhile, it indicates that
the lateral loading capacity significantly increases with the decrease
The hysteretic loop is the basis of hysteretic model which can be of slenderness, specified as follows: compared with the specimen
utilized to analyze the nonlinear seismic response of a component or a SpeUSlR242 (slenderness = 24.2), the lateral loading capacity of
structure. Therefore, the lateral load-drift ratio (displacement) hys- the specimens SpeUTH6 (slenderness = 17.3) and SpeUSlR104
teretic loops for the eleven specimens are shown in Fig. 12 to analyze (slenderness = 10.4) increases 44.2% and 184%.
the cyclic behaviors of UHPSFRC filled thin-walled steel tubular (6) The labels pointed in these diagrams calibrate the process of the

8
S. Xu, et al.
Fig. 10. Failure modes.
yielding and buckling described in Section 3.1 again. In addition, it
also indicates that both the yielding and buckling would be pro-
moted by the decrease of steel tube thickness and steel fibers vo-
lume ratio. The same effect also could be achieved by increasing the
axial compression ratio.
3.3. Envelope diagrams and ductile performance
Fig. 13 compares the envelopes of the hysteretic loops based on the
9
Thin-Walled Structures 140 (2019) 1–20
variables considered, i.e., the steel tube thickness, axial compression
ratio, volume ratio of steel fibers, slenderness and types of core concrete
filled steel tubes. In this paper, the ultimate displacement is utilized to
estimate the ductile performance which reflects the deformation capa-
city of an element (structure) suffered from large amplitude cyclic de-
formations in the inelastic range without a substantial strength decrease
[39,40]. For a more meaningful comparison between columns with
different characteristics, non-dimensional parameters are used [40].
Therefore, the drift ratio (ultimate displacement normalized with the
S. Xu, et al. Thin-Walled Structures 140 (2019) 1–20

Fig. 10. (continued)

10
S. Xu, et al. Thin-Walled Structures 140 (2019) 1–20

Fig. 10. (continued)

11
S. Xu, et al. Thin-Walled Structures 140 (2019) 1–20

Fig. 11. Failure appearances of infilled concrete.

effective length of columns) is utilized to estimate the ductile perfor- where Δμ is the ultimate displacement when the load carrying capacity
mance of the specimens, as shown in Eq. (4): has undergone a 15% reduction, and he is the effective length
+
(750 mm,1250 mm and 1750 mm) of the specimens.
1 u u Based on Fig. 13, it can be concluded that:
u = +
2 he he (4)

12
S. Xu, et al. Thin-Walled Structures 140 (2019) 1–20

Fig. 11. (continued)

(1) The initial lateral stiffness of composite columns is considerably af-
fected by the steel tube thickness (4 mm, 5 mm and 6 mm), axial
compression ratio (0.12, 0.24 and 0.36) and slenderness (10.4, 17.3
and 24.2). Specified as follows: the initial lateral stiffness increases
with the increase of steel tube thickness, axial compression ratio, and
decreases with slenderness. However, compared to HSC and NSC,
UHPSFRC has little effect on the lateral initial stiffness of the speci-
mens. Particularly, it is worth noting that the initial lateral stiffness
could be improved slightly, but the influence of steel fiber volume
ratio from 1% to 2% on the initial lateral stiffness is not evident.

13
S. Xu, et al. Thin-Walled Structures 140 (2019) 1–20

Fig. 12. Lateral load–drift ratio (displacement) hysteretic loops.

14
S. Xu, et al. Thin-Walled Structures 140 (2019) 1–20

Table 7
The characteristic points of the hysteretic hoops.
Specimen code Coordinates Pull Push

YP BP PP YP BP PP

SpeUTH4 X 1.3025 1.7525 3.0888 − 1.3000 − 1.7500 − 2.9438

Y 183.1 214.27 287.5 − 183.56 − 213.31 − 262.26
SpeUTH5 X 1.5050 1.7038 2.8650 − 1.5013 − 1.7575 − 3.0238
Y 244.98 256.26 340.72 − 196.75 − 221.71 − 274.26
SpeUTH6 X 1.7500 2.5100 3.0513 − 1.7575 − 2.5138 − 2.4100
Y 298.01 363.52 370.23 − 292.73 − 332.80 − 344.32
SpeUCR12 X 2.2204 3.2569 4.0264 − 2.2360 − 3.2475 − 4.1100
Y 196.94 261.52 288.72 − 187.67 − 233.66 − 255.04
SpeUCR36 X 0.9038 1.0075 2.8813 − 0.9075 − 1.0025 − 3.4250
Y 216.91 232.03 388.95 − 172.28 − 180.92 − 331.36
SpeUVF0 X 0.7450 0.7213 3.2125 − 0.7525 − 0.7075 − 3.1825
Y 124.53 121.89 267.78 − 105.82 − 101.26 − 214.03
SpeUVF1 X 0.9100 0.9950 2.4038 − 0.9063 − 1.0038 − 2.4975
Y 194.11 203.71 299.69 − 155.00 − 165.08 − 273.54
SpeUSlR104 X 1.5082 1.7531 3.4093 − 1.4917 − 1.7513 − 4.0327
Y 443.17 501.72 730.15 − 339.76 − 322.25 − 642.81
SpeUSlR242 X 2.5025 3.2538 3.1600 − 2.5000 − 3.2563 − 2.8388
Y 232.75 245.94 256.74 − 239.47 − 237.79 − 256.26
SpeHSC80 X 0.7613 0.7213 2.4963 − 0.7525 − 0.7388 − 2.3800
Y 125.97 121.89 276.42 − 105.82 − 104.38 − 263.22
SpeNSC30 X 1.8325 2.4925 2.4375 − 1.8200 − 2.5025 − 2.4700
Y 232.98 244.02 252.90 − 217.15 − 228.91 − 230.83

(2) Fig. 13(a) shows the lateral strength of the specimens filled with
UHPSFRC only increases slightly compared with that of the column
filled with HSC. However, the envelope of the specimen filled with
UHPSFRC becomes smoother, especially for the descending branch.
This obviously means UHPSFRC could improve the ductile perfor-
mance as expected, which is reflected in the post-peak performance
of the thin-walled composite columns. For better calibrating this
conclusion, the ultimate drift ratios are compared, as following: the
ultimate drift ratio of the specimen SpeUTH4 is 3.7%, which in-
creases 12.1% compared with that of the specimen SpeHSC80
(3.3%).
(3) Fig. 13(b) illustrates the lateral strength of the specimen SpeUTH5
increases significantly compared to the specimen SpeNSC30. More
importantly, it also shows the descending branches of the envelope
of specimen SpeUTH5 is somewhat smoother than that of specimen
SpeNSC30. The ultimate drift ratio of the specimen SpeUTH5
(4.38%) just increases about 3% compared with that of the spe-
cimen SpeNSC30 (4.25%). This clearly means, dissimilar to the HSC
filled thin-walled steel tubular columns, the ductile performance of
the UHPSFRC filled thin-walled steel tubular columns is much
better than that of NSC filled thin-walled steel tubular columns.
(4) It can be seen in Fig. 13(c) that the lateral strength of the UHPSFRC
filled thin-walled steel tubular columns increases with the increase
of steel tube thickness. However, the post-peak slope in the envelop
curves does not always become more gradual with increase of the
steel tube thickness whereas even steeper for some cases. For in-
stance, the descending branch becomes smoother with the increase
of steel tube thickness when the steel tube thickness is below 5 mm,
but it becomes steeper when the steel tube thickness increases to
6 mm. This conclusion could be further validated by comparing the
ultimate drift ratios, as following: the ultimate drift ratios of the
specimen SpeUTH4, SpeUTH5 and SpeUTH6 are 3.67%, 4.25% and
3.64%, respectively. The above observations reflect that the ductile
performance does not necessarily improve with increase of the steel
tube thickness and it is somewhat contradictory to common intui-
tion [7,41]. This may be due to the actually applied axial com-
pression on the core concrete after steel tube buckling is sig-
nificantly different when the axial compression keeps a constant
value. In other words, after steel tube buckling, a large portion of
the axial compression originally supported by the steel tube at the
early loading stage is gradually transferred to the core concrete.
Therefore, the transferred axial compression to the core concrete
increases with the increase of steel tube thickness which induces
adverse effect on the post-peak performance [42].
(5) Fig. 13(d) compares the envelops of the specimens suffered from
different axial compression ratios. It obviously shows that the lat-
eral strength increases with the increase of axial compression ratio.
However, it decreases faster with the increase of axial compression
ratio after peak lateral strength which indicates a more brittle post-
peak performance. In addition, the ultimate drift ratios of the spe-
cimens are also compared for a better illustration of the conclu-
sions. Compared with the ultimate drift ratio of the specimen
SpeUCR12 (5.96%), the ultimate drift ratios of the specimen
SpeUTH5 and SpeUCR36 decrease 28.7% and 35.9–4.25% and
3.82%, respectively. Therefore, it can be concluded that increasing
the axial compression ratio would impair improve the ductile per-
formance of the UHPSFRC filled thin-walled steel tubular columns
significantly.
(6) As can be seen in Fig. 13(e), the lateral strength changes with the
increase of steel fiber volume ratio, as analyzed in Section 3.2.
Furthermore, the descending branches of these envelops become
smother smoother with the increase of steel fiber volume ratio,
which indicates a better post-peak performance. For a better illus-
tration of the enhancement effect of increasing steel fiber volume
ratio on the ductile performance, the ultimate drift ratios are also
compared in detail. The ultimate drift ratio of specimen SpeUVF0 is
0.031, compared with that, the ultimate drift ratios of specimens
SpeUVF1 and SpeUTH4 are 3.4% and 3.67% which increases 9.7%
and 19.4%, respectively. Therefore, it can be concluded that in-
creasing the volume ratio of steel fibers has a positive effect on
improving the ductile performance of UHPSFRC filled thin-walled
steel tubular columns as expected.
(7) Fig. 13(f) clearly shows the slenderness has a great effect on lateral
strength of the specimens as analyzed in Section 3.2. It also ob-
viously indicates the lateral strength experiences a dramatic drop
when the slenderness decreases to 10.4. However, the descending
branches of the other envelops are rather smoother. This means
increasing the slenderness could improve the ductile performance
of the UHPSFRC filled thin-walled steel tubular columns. For a
better illustration, the ultimate drift ratios are also compared. The

15
S. Xu, et al.
Fig. 13. Comparisons of envelopes of cyclic response.
ultimate drift ratio of the specimen SpeUSlR104 is 3.18%, compared
with that, the ultimate drift ratios of specimens SpeUTH6 and
SpeUSlR242 are 3.67% and 4.4% which increases 15.4% and 18.4%,
respectively.
(8) The limiting plastic drift ratio for CFST frame structure suffered
from rare earthquake in the Chinese seismic design code “Technical
Code for Concrete Filled Steel Tubular Structures” is 0.02 (1/50)
[43], and that defined in Eurocode8 “Design of Structures for
16
Thin-Walled Structures 140 (2019) 1–20
Earthquake Resistance” is 0.01–0.025 based on the importance
factors in terms of buildings service period [44]. The limits are
utilized as references to evaluate the ductile performance of the
tested specimens in this paper since they are not necessarily relative
to structural damage or collapse [45]. Fig. 14 clearly shows that the
ultimate drift ratio of all specimen changes from 3.2% to 5.96%,
which is larger than the limits restricted in the current seismic
design guidelines. Therefore, it indicates that the UHPSFRC filled
S. Xu, et al.
Fig. 14. The ultimate drift ratios.
thin-walled steel tubular columns have an excellent ductile per-
formance to resist earthquake and show a strong collapse resistant
performance.
3.4. Stiffness degradation
In this study, the lateral stiffness is defined as the secant slope
calculated as Eq. (4) where Ki is the lateral stiffness to be investigated,
Fil is the lateral strength in a loading cycle and Dil is the corresponding
displacement. Furthermore, it is worth noting that the average value in
a push and pull loading cycle is adopted to eliminate the data errors as
much as possible.
Ki = Fil / Dil (5)
Fig. 15 plots the lateral stiffness degradation diagrams. It is worth
noting that the HSC and NSC filled thin-walled steel tubular columns
are taken as the references for better illustrating the lateral stiffness
degradation of UHPSFRC filled thin-walled steel tubular columns.
Meanwhile, the effects of main variables including steel tube thickness,
axial compression ratio, volume ratio of steel fiber and slenderness on
the lateral stiffness degradation are analyzed in detail.
Based on Fig. 15, it can be concluded that:
(1) The lateral stiffness continuously decreases with the increase of
lateral loading since the continuous accumulation of material da-
mage in the whole test.
(2) The lateral stiffness of specimen SpeHSC80 degrades more rapidly
than that of the specimen SpeUTH4, as shown in Fig. 16(a). How-
ever, Fig. 15(b) shows that the stiffness of the specimen SpeNSC30
decreases faster than that of the specimen SpeUTH5. Therefore, it
can be concluded that UHPSFRC causes an obvious change con-
verting the dramatic decrease of the HSC filled thin-walled columns
stiffness to a relatively smooth degradation.
(3) Fig. 15(c) compares the lateral stiffness degradation of the speci-
mens with different steel tube thickness. It can be seen that the
increase of steel tube thickness could not only improve the lateral
stiffness but also retard the stiffness degradation. Fig. 15(d) clearly
shows that increasing the axial compression ratio could improve the
lateral stiffness. however, as a negative effect, it promotes the de-
gradation of the lateral stiffness significantly. Meanwhile, de-
creasing the slenderness could almost affect the lateral stiffness of
the columns in the same way, as plotted in Fig. 15(f). It can be seen
from Fig. 15(e) that the most important feature of adding steel fi-
bers is not to improve the lateral stiffness but to delay its de-
gradation.
17
Thin-Walled Structures 140 (2019) 1–20
3.5. Energy dissipation capacity
In general, a well-designed building has an excellent energy dis-
sipation capacity, which is endowed by the plastic deformation of
components, to vanish the earthquake input energy. Therefore, the
energy dissipation capacity of UHPSFRC filled thin-walled steel tubular
columns is investigated in this section and the specimens SpeHSC80 and
SpeNSC30 are also taken as references to get a better illustration. The
effects of main variables including the steel tube thickness, axial com-
pression ratio, volume ratio of steel fibers and slenderness are also
analyzed in detail.
In this paper, the cumulative dissipated energy (Esum) calculated as
Eq. (6) is employed to assess the energy dissipation capacity of col-
umns. In Eq. (6), Ei is the dissipated energy at each cycle i calculated as
Ei = A B Fil d and n is the cycle number of lateral loading applied to
the specimens.
n
Esum = Ei
i=1 (6)
Fig. 16 compares the cumulative dissipated energy of the tested
specimens based on the studied variables and the following conclusions
can be drawn:
(1) By replacing HSC with UHPSFRC to infill thin-walled steel tubes,
the cumulative dissipated energy of specimens can be significantly
improved, as shown in Fig. 16(a). However, neglectable difference
exists in the cumulative dissipated energy of UHPSFRC filled thin-
walled steel tubular columns and NSC filled thin-walled steel tub-
ular columns, as plotted in Fig. 16(b), which illustrates that the
UHPSFRC filled thin-walled steel tubular columns represent ex-
cellent energy dissipation capacity.
(2) As shown in Fig. 16(c), increasing the steel tube thickness could
improve the energy dissipation capacity of UHPSFRC filled thin-
walled steel tubular columns, which specifically performs in the
growth of energy dissipation speed and the finally cumulative dis-
sipated energy. However, Fig. 16(d) shows that the increase of axial
compression ratio could only improve the energy dissipation speed
whereas decrease the finally cumulative dissipated energy. Mean-
while, Fig. 16(e) indicates that, not as expected, increasing the
volume ratio of steel fiber could just increase the finally cumulative
dissipated energy, but it does not contribute to improving the en-
ergy dissipated speed. In addition, Fig. 16(f) compares the cumu-
lative dissipated energy of the specimens with different slenderness.
It illustrates that decreasing the slenderness to 10.4 could improve
both the energy dissipated speed and finally cumulative dissipated
energy significantly, but neglectable difference exists in the energy
dissipation capacity of specimens when the slenderness is beyond
17.3.
4. Conclusions
This paper presents an experimental investigation on the cyclic
behavior of ultra-high-performance steel fiber reinforced concrete filled
thin-walled steel tubular columns under combined axial compression
and lateral displacement loading. The following conclusions can be
drawn based on the test results:
(1) A poor cyclic behavior was found for HSC filled thin-walled steel
tubular columns. However, a better cyclic behavior was demon-
strated for UHPSFRC infilled thin-walled steel tubes columns. In
addition, the cyclic behavior of UHPSFRC filled thin-walled steel
tubular columns was also much better than that of NSC filled thin-
walled steel tubular columns.
(2) The failure modes of UHPSFRC filled thin-walled steel tubular
columns are similar to that of HSC and NSC filled thin-walled steel
S. Xu, et al. Thin-Walled Structures 140 (2019) 1–20

Fig. 15. Lateral stiffness degradation.

tubular columns. Meanwhile, it is also observed that UHPSFRC re- thickness. In addition, the lateral strength, lateral stiffness and cu-
presents a certain degree of completeness whereas the NSC and HSC mulative dissipated energy also increase with the increase of steel
are almost crushed after columns failure. tube thickness, but the ductile performance represents deterioration
(3) The hysteretic loops become plumper with the increase of steel tube when steel tube thickness is beyond 6 mm. Therefore, the

18
S. Xu, et al. Thin-Walled Structures 140 (2019) 1–20

Fig. 16. Cumulative dissipated energy.

recommended steel tube thickness should be between 4 mm and
6 mm in comprehensive consideration.
(4) Similar to the specimens suffered low axial compression ratio,
plump hysteretic loops can also be derived for the specimens under
higher axial compression ratio.
(5) By increasing the volume ratio of steel fiber, the narrow hysteretic
loops can be converted to plump hysteretic loops. Moreover, the
lateral strength is improved when the steel fiber volume ratio in-
creases to 1% from 0, but little difference exists in the lateral
strength when the volume ratio of steel fiber changes to 2% from

19
S. Xu, et al.
1%. A more pronounced effect of increasing the steel fiber volume
ratio is to delay the decrease of lateral stiffness instead of improving
lateral stiffness and improving the ductile performance further.
Meanwhile, the cumulative energy also increases with the increase
of steel fiber volume ratio. Therefore, the recommended volume
ratio of steel fiber should be between 1% and 2% in comprehensive
consideration.
(6) The decrease of slenderness does not produce negative effect on the
hysteretic loops of UHPSFRC filled thin-walled steel tubular col-
umns. In addition, it could improve the lateral strength, lateral
stiffness and cumulative dissipated energy significantly. However,
it accelerates the decrease of the lateral strength and lateral stiff-
ness, and results in the further deterioration of the ductility.
Acknowledgements
The financial support of the Key Projects of Tianjin Science and
Technology Support Plan 14ZCZDSF0016, China, and the ARC
Discovery Project DP160104661, Australia, is gratefully acknowledged.
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