Long-term structural analysis and stability assessment of three-pinned CFST arches accounting for geometric nonlinearity

Due to creep and shrinkage of the concrete core, concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) arches continue to deform in the long-term under sustained loads. This paper presents analytical investigations of the effects of geometric nonlinearity on the long-term in-plane structural performance and stability of three-pinned CFST circular arches under a sustained uniform radial load. Non-linear long-term analysis is conducted and compared with its linear counterpart. It is found that the linear analysis predicts long-term increases of deformations of the CFST arches, but does not predict any long-term changes of the internal actions. However, non-linear analysis predicts not only more significant long-term increases of deformations, but also significant long-term increases of internal actions under the same sustained load. As a result, a three-pinned CFST arch satisfying the serviceability limit state predicted by the linear analysis may violate the serviceability requirement when its geometric nonlinearity is considered. It is also shown that the geometric nonlinearity greatly reduces the long-term in-plane stability of three-pinned CFST arches under the sustained load. A three-pinned CFST arch satisfying the stability limit state predicted by linear analysis in the long-term may lose its stability because of its geometric nonlinearity. Hence, non-linear analysis is needed for correctly predicting the long-term structural behaviour and stability of three-pinned CFST arches under the sustained load. The non-linear long-term behaviour and stability of three-pinned CFST arches are compared with those of two-pinned counterparts. The linear and non-linear analyses for the long-term behaviour and stability are validated by the finite element method.