Nonlinear behavior of concrete-filled stainless steel stiffened slender tube columns

This paper investigates the nonlinear behavior of concrete-filled high strength stainless steel stiffened slender square and rectangular hollow section columns. The stiffened slender tubes had overall depth-to-plate thickness (D/t) ratios ranging 60-160. The concrete strengths covered normal and high-strength concrete. The investigation focused on short axially loaded columns. A nonlinear finite element (FE) model has been developed to study the behavior of the concrete-filled stiffened tube columns. A parametric study was conducted to investigate the effects of cross-section geometry and concrete strength on the behavior and strength of the columns. The results of the concrete-filled stiffened tube columns were compared with the results of the companion concrete-filled unstiffened tube columns. It is shown that the concrete-filled stiffened slender tube columns offer a considerable increase in the column strength and ductility than the concrete-filled unstiffened slender tube columns. The column strengths obtained from the FE analysis were compared with the design strengths calculated using the American specifications and Australian/New Zealand standards. A design equation was proposed for concrete-filled stainless steel stiffened slender tube columns. It is shown that the proposed modified equation provides more accurate design strengths compared to the American and Australian/New Zealand predictions. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.