Behavior of partially precast steel reinforced concrete columns under eccentric loading

This paper provides an insight into the behavior of partially precast steel reinforced concrete (PPSRC) column and hollow precast steel reinforced concrete (HPSRC) column subjected to eccentric loading. Nine PPSRC columns and five HPSRC columns were tested to examine the effects of the loading eccentricity, the difference of the cast-in-place concrete strength and flange shear studs on the performance of both kinds of specimens. The failure modes, axial load versus deflection curves as well as the strains of the steel section and the concrete were emphatically investigated. The test results demonstrated that the precast concrete and the inner concrete worked well in resisting the bending and the axial loading, the mechanical performances of HPSRC column and PPSRC column were comparable during the test, though the bearing capacity of the PPSRC column was slightly higher than that of the HPSRC column. Higher compression strength of the inner concrete and smaller eccentricity led to higher bearing capacity and the shear studs had no significant effect on the structural behavior of PPSRC column and HPSRC column. In addition, with the increase of eccentricity, the influence of concrete strength on bearing capacity decreased gradually. Moreover, the plane-section assumption was proved to be valid, and a rational calculation for predicting the sectional capacity of the PPSRC and HPSRC column was proposed on the basis of the experimental results.