Analysis of Concrete-Filled Square Steel Tube Short Columns under Eccentric Loading

The concrete-filled square steel tube (CFSST) columns have been widely applied in structural engineering. Although many constitutive models have been proposed to describe CFSST short columns under concentric loading, the applicability of the existing concentric model in the analysis of CFSST short columns under eccentric loading has not been properly verified. In this paper, the eccentric behaviors of CFSST short columns were investigated with the software of ABAQUS/standard. It was found that the contact stress between steel tube and inner concrete was seriously affected by eccentric ratios, indicating that the confinement effect of steel tube on inner concrete was different under concentric and eccentric loading. In this paper, a new stress-strain model of inner concrete which considered the influence of eccentricity was developed and verified with existing experimental results. It was found that the proposed stress-strain model was more accurate in simulating the eccentric behaviors of CFSST short columns.