• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.73-92
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• 2012

The effect of element interaction and material nonlinearity on the ultimate capacity of stainless steel plated cross-sections is investigated in this paper. The focus of the research lies in cross-sections failing by local buckling; member instabilities, distortional buckling and interactions thereof with local buckling are not considered. The cross-sections investigated include rectangular hollow sections (RHS), I sections and parallel flange channels (PFC). Based on previous finite element investigations of structural stainless steel stub columns, parametric studies were conducted and the ultimate capacity of the aforementioned cross-sections with a range of element slendernesses and aspect ratios has been obtained. Various design methods, including the effective width approach, the direct strength method (DSM), the continuous strength method (CSM) and a design method based on regression analysis, which accounts for element interaction, were assessed on the basis of the numerical results, and the relative merits and weaknesses of each design approach have been highlighted. Element interaction has been shown to be significant for slender cross-sections, whilst the behaviour of stocky cross-sections is more strongly influenced by the material strain-hardening characteristics. A modification to the continuous strength method has been proposed to allow for the effect of element interaction, which leads to more reliable ultimate capacity predictions. Comparisons with available test data have also been made to demonstrate the enhanced accuracy of the proposed method and its suitability for the treatment of local buckling in stainless steel cross-sections.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.353-366
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• 2021

Cored moment resisting stub column (CMSC) was previously developed by the features of adopting a core segment which remains mostly elastic and reduced column section (RCS) details around the ends to from a stable hysteretic behavior with large post-yield stiffness and considerable ductility. Several full-scale CMSC components with various length proportions of the RCSs with respect to overall lengths have been experimentally investigated through both far-field and near-fault cyclic loadings followed by fatigue tests. Test results verified that the proposed CMSC provided very ductile hysteretic responses with no strength degradation even beyond the occurrence of the local buckling at the side-segments. The effect of RCS lengths on the seismic performance of the CMSC was verified to relate with the levels of the deformation concentration at the member ends, the local buckling behavior and overall ductility. Estimation equations were established to notionally calculate the first-yield and ultimate strengths of the CMSC and validated by the measured responses. A numerical model of the CMSC was developed to accurately capture the hysteretic performance of the specimens, and was adopted to clarify the effect of the surrounding frame and to perform a parametric study to develop the estimation of the elastic stiffness.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.589-604
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• 2016

Kenya has recently experienced worrying collapse of buildings during construction largely attributable to the poor quality of in-situ concrete and poor workmanship. The situation in the country is further compounded by rapid deterioration of infrastructure, hence necessitating the development of alternative structural systems such as concrete filled unplasticized poly vinyl chloride (UPVC) tubes as columns. The work herein adds on to the very limited and scanty work on use of UPVC tubes in construction. This study presents the findings of experimental and analytical work which investigated the structural response of composite concrete filled UPVC tubes under compressive load regime. UPVC pipes are cheaper than steel tubes and can be used as formwork during construction and thereafter as an integral part of column. Key variables in this study included the strength of infill concrete, the length to diameter ratio (L/D) of the plastic tube, as well as the diameter to thickness ratio (D/2t) of the plastic tube. Plastic tubes having varying diameters and heights were used to confine concrete of different strengths. Results obtained in the study clearly demonstrate the effectiveness of UPVC tubes as a confining medium for infill concrete, attributable to enhanced composite interaction between the UPVC tube and infill concrete medium. It was determined that compressive strength of the composite column specimens increased with increased concrete strength while the same decreased with increased column height, albeit by a small margin since all the columns considered were short columns. Most importantly, the experimental confined concrete strength increased significantly when compared to unconfined concrete strength; the strength increased between 1.18 to 3.65 times the unconfined strength. It was noted that lower strength infill concrete had the highest confined strength possibly due to enhanced composite interaction with the confining UPVC tube. The study further proposes an analytical model for the determination of confined strength of concrete.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.70 no.1
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• pp.13-31
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• 2019

A nonlinear finite element model (FEM) using ATENA-3D software to simulate the axially compressive behavior of circular steel tube confined concrete (CSTCC) columns infilled with ultra high performance concrete (UHPC) was presented in this paper. Some modifications to the material type "CC3DNonlinCementitious2User" of UHPC without and with the incorporation of steel fibers (UHPFRC) in compression and tension were adopted in FEM. The predictions of utimate strength and axial load versus axial strain curves obtained from FEM were in a good agreement with the test results of eighteen tested columns. Based on the results of FEM, the load distribution on the steel tube and the concrete core was derived for each modeled column. Furthermore, the effect of bonding between the steel tube and the concrete core was clarified by the change of friction coefficient in the material type "CC3DInterface" in FEM. The numerical results revealed that the increase in the friction coefficient leads to a greater contribution from the steel tube, a decrease in the ultimate load and an increase in the magnitude of the loss of load capacity. By comparing the results of FEM with experimental results, the appropriate friction coefficient between the steel tube and the concrete core was defined as 0.3 to 0.6. In addition to the numerical evaluation, eighteen analytical models for confined concrete in the literature were used to predict the peak confined strength to assess their suitability. To cope with CSTCC stub and intermediate columns, the equations for estimating the lateral confining stress and the equations for considering the slenderness in the selected models were proposed. It was found that all selected models except for EC2 (2004) gave a very good prediction. Among them, the model of Bing et al. (2001) was the best predictor.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.289-297
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• 2013

In this study, the local buckling behavior of steel built-up columns, fabricated with grade 800MPa high performance (HSA800), was investigated to verify the suitability of width-to-thickness ratio limits adopted by the current design code. For this purpose, an experimental program was designed and performed for HSA800 steel column specimens with various width-to-thickness ratios. Then the experimental results were compared and verified with finite element analysis results. The parametric analytical studies with various width-to-thickness ratios were also performed to investigate the missing data from the limited experimental studies. From the experimental and analytical studies, It was found that the finite analysis models could reasonably estimate the test results within the 5.3% average differences. The local buckling behaviors of HSA800 steel columns were found to be largely depend on the values of initial imperfection introduced into finite element analyses.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.13-22
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• 2015

This study suggests mixing steel fibers in concrete to secure the toughness of the columns. Therefore, to evaluate the structural behavior of welded built-up square columns filled with steel fiber reinforced concrete, ten stub column specimens were fabricated for compressive loading test with variables of steel fiber mixing ratio and loading condition. It is deduced that the steel fibers continue to provide tensile strength even after the concrete cracks and thus improve the strength and behavior of the column when bending moment is applied to it. A small amount of steel fibers can improve compressive strength and bending strength and thus produce economically efficient results when employed in structural design.