Experimental and analytical research on seismic performance of ECC-filled high-strength double skin steel tubular columns with out-of-code D/t ratios

Abstract

Against the offshore construction requirement on light weight and high performance, using high-strength (HS) steel in concrete-filled double skin steel tubular (CFDST) members usually results in out-of-code diameter-to-thickness (D/t) ratios and performance uncertainty. A quasi-static cyclic loading test was therefore conducted to investigate the seismic performance of circular-in-circular ECC-filled high-strength double skin steel tubular (EFHDST) columns with out-of-code D/t ratios. Typical failure mode, hysteretic curves, bearing capacity and ductility were analyzed. Subsequently, the finite element (FE) model incorporating material damage effect was established and verified to conduct further parametric study. Influence of geometric parameters (e.g., wall thickness and hollow ratio), material strength and axial compression level was discussed in detail. Finally, a simplified restoring force model was developed to predict the seismic behavior of EFHDST columns. The result indicates that: the EFHDST columns fail by the ECC crushing, steel fracture and local buckling of double-skin tubes; the steel yield strength and thickness of outer tube, axial compression level and hollow ratio obviously affect the hysteretic performance (e.g., the bearing capacity and ductility) through the test and FE analysis, e.g., increasing hollow ratio from 0.54 to 0.82 the bearing capacity and ductility coefficient of test respectively decrease by 11.20% and 26.61%; the dimensionless skeleton curve, unloading stiffness degradation and hysteretic rule are proposed to form the restoring force model, where a strength model considering effect of ECC tension strength is included, and the reasonable agreement is achieved by the comparison results. The displayed research on EFHDST columns can provide significant references to its engineering applications.