Experimental investigation into the buckling behaviour of cable-stiffened steel columns

Abstract

In this study, cable-stiffened steel columns (CSSCs), which primarily aim to enhance compression behaviour, were experimentally investigated. In contrast to other stiffened column types, the cable-stiffened steel columns investigated in this work were equipped with a three-branch crossarm system. A series of tests were performed on 2.4 m CSSCs with two different crossarm–main column connection types (i.e., rigid and scissor types). In addition to the connection types, the effects of crossarm length and initial pretension on the load carrying capacities of CSSCs were also studied experimentally. The experimental results indicate that the three-branch crossarm system is effective in improving the buckling load of ordinary compression columns. The findings prove that the scissor-type connections between the crossarms and the main column could also be used in practical applications. Moreover, a unique, asymmetric post-buckling mode for a CSSC with a three-branch crossarm system was observed. The effects of crossarm length and pretension in cables are also demonstrated. This results presented in this work could be of assistance in the further design of CSSCs.