Axial compressive behavior of high-strength concrete-filled steel tube with multiple confinement effects

Abstract

To study the axial compressive behavior and the confinement mechanism of high-strength concrete-filled circular steel tube with multiple confinement effects, five large size samples with horizontal stiffeners, longitudinal stiffeners, multilayer reinforcement cages, inner steel tube and separation steel plates were designed. The influences of these structures on the bearing capacity, ductility, stiffness, and residual deformation were then analyzed. Combining the strain analyses and finite element model analysis, the confinement mechanism of different structures and the coupling mechanism of different confinement effects were investigated. The results showed that the confinement effect of the horizontal stiffeners was similar to that of the stirrups. The longitudinal stiffeners did not provide a significant confinement effect on the concrete. The multilayer reinforcement cages had an effective confinement effect on the concrete, where the confinement effect increased from the outside to the inside, while the reinforcement cages had a slight influence on the concrete outside the reinforcement cages. The inner steel tube had an effective confinement effect on the core concrete and had a slight influence on the concrete outside the inner steel tube. The multicell steel tube showed the best confinement effect compared to the other structures and showed the best axial compressive behavior. In the confinement mechanism analyses, the calculation method of the stress–strain relationship of concrete with multiple confinement effects was proposed. The calculated F-Δ curves showed a good agreement with the test results.