Seismic behavior of stiffened concrete-filled double-skin tubular columns

Abstract

The imperfect steel-concrete interface bonding is an important deficiency of the concrete-filled double skin tubular (CFDST) columns that led to separating concrete and steel surfaces under lateral loads and triggering buckling failure of the columns. To improve this issue, it is proposed in this study to use longitudinal and transverse steel stiffeners in CFDST columns. CFDST columns with different patterns of stiffeners embedded in the interior or exterior surfaces of the inner or outer tubes were analyzed under constant axial force and reversed cyclic loading. In the finite element modeling, the confinement effects of both inner and outer tubes on the compressive strength of concrete as well as the effect of discrete crack for concrete fracture were incorporated which give a realistic prediction of the seismic behavior of CFDST columns. Lateral strength, stiffness, ductility and energy absorption are evaluated based on the hysteresis loops. The results indicated that the stiffeners had determinant role on improving pinching behavior resulting from the outer tube's local buckling and opening/closing of the major tensile crack of concrete. The lateral strength, initial stiffness and energy absorption capacity of longitudinally stiffened columns with fixed-free end condition were increased by as much as 17%, 20% and 70%, respectively. The energy dissipation was accentuated up to 107% for fixed-guided end condition. The use of transverse stiffeners at the base of columns increased energy dissipation up to 35%. Axial load ratio, hollow ratio and concrete strength affecting the initial stiffness and lateral strength, had negligible effect of the energy dissipation of the columns. It was also found that the longitudinal stiffeners and transverse stiffeners have, respectively, negative and positive effects on ductility of CFDST columns. The conclusions, drawn from this study, can in turn, lead to the suggestion of some guidelines for the design of CFDST columns.