Numerical and experimental study on seismic behavior of concrete-filled T-section steel tubular columns and steel beam planar frames

Abstract

The seismic behavior of planar frames with concrete-filled T-section columns to steel beam was experimentally and numerically studied. A finite element analysis (FEA) model was developed to investigate the engineering properties of the planar frames. Two 1:2.5 reduced-scale specimens of T-section concrete-filled steel tubular column and steel beam of single-story and single-bay plane frames were designed and fabricated based on the design principles of strong-column, weak-beam and stronger-joint. One three-dimensional entity model of the investigated frame structure was built using a large-scale nonlinear finite-element analysis software ABAQUS. Experimental results show that the axial compression ratio has no effect on the failure mode of the structure, while with the increase of axial compression ratio and the dissipated energy ability increasing, the structural ductility decreased. The results from both experiments and simulations agree with each other, which verifies the validity and accuracy of the developed finite element model. Furthermore, the developed finite element model helps to reflect the detailed stress status of the investigated frame at different time and different positions.