Behaviour of cold-formed steel hollow and concrete-filled members

This paper presents the results of a series of tests carried out on hollow and concrete-filled cold-formed steel sections subjected to axial and bending forces. The effects of eccentricity ratio and strength of in-fill On the behaviour of these sections were studied. A total of forty-eight medium sized columns and six beams were tested to failure. Extensive measurements of material properties, strains, axial shortening and lateral deflection were carried out. Interaction of local and overall buckling was observed in the tests. Failure mode observations were local buckling coupled with overall buckling. A description of the specially fabricated end fixtures for applying eccentric loading to the columns and to simulate pinned end condition is also presented. The experimental results of hollow columns are compared with the existing Indian, British and American codes of practice and the results of concrete-filled columns are compared with EC4 recommendations. It is seen that in the case of hollow columns predictions based on British and American codes of practice and in the case of concrete-filled columns predictions based on EC4 recommendations agree reasonably well with the experimental results. From the experiments it is seen that the provision of in-fill substantially increases the ultimate load carrying capacity of the order of one and a half to two times and the increase in strength of the in-filled concrete from a low grade concrete of compressive strength 24.94 MPa to a high grade concrete of compressive strength 33.26 MPa increases the ultimate load carrying capacity by one and a half times irrespective of the eccentricity of loading.