High-strength steel–concrete composite columns for buildings

Abstract

High-strength quenched and tempered structural steel has seen an increased usage in the application to heavily loaded columns in multi-storey building construction. This has been particularly true in nations where such steels are abundantly produced, particularly Australia and Japan. Many current international codes do not cater for the use of high-strength steel and thus research is required to give structural engineers the confidence to use this new and innovative material in a safe and efficient manner in construction. Previous research on the use of high-strength structural steel for columns is outlined herein and a summary of previous applications in multi-storey buildings is provided. The paper provides a very comprehensive summary of experimental results on the uses of high-strength structural steel in composite columns specifically for multi-storey building construction. Calibration of these experiments with theoretical models and the Eurocode 4 approach has highlighted some of the differences that need to be implemented in order to design building structures safely with this material. Suggested design recommendations as well as further research is therefore summarised.