Experimental study on seismic behavior of reinforced concrete pipe columns with large size and thin wall

Reinforced Concrete Pipe Columns (RCPC) with large size and thin wall have been widely used in air condenser framed structure as main energy dissipated members. To investigate the seismic performance of such columns, four reinforced concrete pipe columns were constructed and tested, which put to experiments under repeated horizontal load with constant axial loads. The damaging rules under factors such as axial compression ratio, thickness diameter ratio and reinforcement ratio are studied, and the influences on the seismic performances of the hysteretic characteristics, displacement ductility, stiffness and energy dissipation are discussed. The feasibility of formula put forward in national code for design of concrete structure on the annular cross section ultimate load-carrying capacity of RCPC is also analyzed. At last, it is recommended some methods for the design of RCPC applied to air condenser framed structure.