Chapter 1 - Introduction

Abstract

The term ‘composite structures’ refer to structures in which different materials such as timber, steel, concrete, and masonry are used together for construction. The most common type of composite construction is the use of steel and concrete to form steel-concrete composite structures. Steel-concrete composite structural members are known as economic members and have been used in construction for various structure types. It is a very well-known fact that steel members are susceptible to buckling, while their tensile strength is remarkable. Conversely, plain concrete members can withstand a large magnitude of compressive force; however, their tensile strength is very low. Therefore, the simultaneous use of steel and concrete allows the structural designers to take advantage of steel and concrete and neutralize each material's drawback by the advantage of the other material. By taking this viewpoint, most structural members such as slabs, columns, beams, and trusses can be constructed using steel-concrete composite members. The main focus of the current book is to understand the structural behavior of concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) members and concrete-filled double skin steel tubular (CFDST) members as one of the most recent forms of composite members, and other structural members are beyond the scope of this book.