Experimental Investigation of the Axial Behaviour for Battened Tubular Columns

Abstract

This paper describes a series of experiments on batten tubular specimens with various slenderness ratios. The experimental study was employed to satisfy the expectations of behaviour and axial load capability of battened tubular columns. Twelve specimens composed of four tubes having different global column slenderness and various ratios of the unbraced chord slenderness-to-the global column slenderness were chosen to cover stub, short and medium columns. The tubes were assembled with welded batten plates. A numerical model with a thin shell element considered both geometric and material nonlinearities was used to verify the experimental results. Tests result showed different failure modes, such as local, local-flexural and flexural buckling. By comparing, the finite element and tested results have a good agreement. The results revealed the strength of the battened columns, which was related to the effect of global slenderness and spacers on the buckling behaviour. Additionally, the stub, short and medium column strengths were enhanced by 8%, 25%, and 78%; respectively, when the number of spacers increased to four batten plates. Eventually, predicted strengths of the battened column by AISC and EC3 specifications were slightly un-conservative.