Seismic behaviour of square CFT beam–columns under biaxial bending moment

Abstract

This paper investigates the behaviour of square concrete-filled steel tubular (CFT) beam–columns subjected to biaxial moment. Nine tests on beam–columns are reported here under a combined loading of constant axial load and cyclic lateral load applied at varying angles to the axis of the cross-section, referred to as ‘diagonal’ loading. The specimens were prepared in order to evaluate the influence of different parameters on the overall structural response, their ductility and their energy dissipation ability; the parameters included the effects of axial load ratio, width-to-thickness ratio, concrete compressive strength, slenderness ratio and load angle on the moment strength. The experimental results indicate that the ductility and energy dissipation ability of biaxially loaded square CFT columns decrease with increasing the axial load ratio. Their ductility and energy dissipation ability was also observed to decrease as the concrete compressive strength increased while the ductility was barely affected by the load angle. An increase in the load angle of biaxially bent square CFT beam–columns led to a slight decrease of the moment strength. Both EC4 and AIJ code provisions were shown to predict with reasonable accuracy the moment strength capacity observed in the tests, while the ACI-predicted moment strength gave to slightly conservative values. On the other hand, the LRFD code provisions greatly underestimated their moment strength.