DISCUSSIONS AND CLOSURES

The second issue addresses whether or not the force carried by

Discussion of ‘‘Mechanical Behavior of the steel tube in SFE columns maintained approximately 40% of
Circular Steel—Concrete Composite Stub the total applied load in all the postpeak range.
Columns’’ by Mathias Johansson and The results from the finite-element 共FE兲 analyses presented by
Kent Gylltoft the authors showed that the steel tube contributed approximately
40% to the total load resistance and maintained it till the end of
August 2002, Vol. 128, No. 8, pp. 1073–1081.
loading. Sen 共1969兲 showed that at the advanced loading stage,
DOI: 10.1061/共ASCE兲0733-9445共2002兲128:8共1073兲
the percentage of load carried by the core increased, with a cor-
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responding reduction on the load carried by the shell.

Dongliang Zhou, S.M.ASCE,1 and Jiaru Qian2
1 The triaxial compression model of concrete influences the FE
PhD Research Student, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Univ. of
Tsinghua, Beijing, China 100084. E-mail: zhoudongliang00@
analysis results greatly. The model used in the original paper is
mails.tsinghua.edu.cn not very accurate for triaxial compression 共HKS 1997兲. Jinfeng
2
Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Univ. of Tsinghua, Beijing, Xu 共1989兲 pointed out that the failure surface of concrete is not
China 100084. E-mail: qianjr@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn the asymptotic surface of the loading surfaces but it is the enve-
lope surface of them. With the increase of the damnification, the
The discusser followed with interest the original paper and would loading surface floats from the low-hydrostatic pressure area tothe
request the authors’ views on the following two issues. high-hydrostatic pressure area. The loading surface will be tan-
First, why did the concrete-filled steel tube 共CFT兲 stub col- gent to the failure surface but won’t superpose it. With a kine-
umns have so little compressive strength increase due to the con- matic hardening and softening constitutive model of concrete de-
finement effects? The test results presented by the authors showed veloped by Jinfeng Xu 共1989兲, and together with the Drucker-
that the measured ultimate load P u,t was only 1.03 times of the Prager failure surface and an associated flow rule, FE analysis of
theoretical ultimate load P u,cal for SFE columns. The test results CFT columns was carried out. Fig. 1 here shows the analytical
of the discussers and other researchers indicated that the confine- results of the vertical stress f v and the hoop stress f h versus the
ment effects of the steel tube enhanced the axial capacity of SFE vertical strain ␧ v of the steel tube.
columns obviously, see discussion Table 1. The value of ␰ of the Perhaps we could reach the conclusion that the steel tube does
authors’ specimens was 0.89 and it was 0.85– 1.39 for specimens not maintain approximately 40% of the total applied load in all
listed in Table 1. ␰ is a confinement index and calculated by the postpeak range.
Tests of CFT stub columns with three loading conditions were
␰⫽A a f y /A c f c (1) carried by Cai and Jiao 共1984兲. The ultimate axial load capacities
where A a and A c are the cross section areas of steel tube and of the stub columns with different load conditions were about the
concrete core, respectively, f y and f c are the yield stress of steel same—just like the achievements of the authors. For the concrete
tube and the axial compressive strength of concrete. only SFC columns, the initial stress in the steel tube was zero, and
Sen 共1969兲 proposed that the axial capacity of the CFT stub by the bond effect, axial load passed from the concrete core to the
columns could be expressed by the following equation: shell. For the SFS columns, the shell resisted all the load at the
beginning and after the loading plates attached with the concrete
P u ⫽0.75f y A a ⫹A c 关 f c ⫹3.8f y / 共 d⫺t 兲兴 ⬟A c f c 共 1⫹1.7␰ 兲 (2)
core, the shell and the core resisted the load together. For the SFE
where d and t⫽diameter and thickness of steel tube, respectively.
The other specimens with different ␰ value tested by the discuss-
ers indicated that the axial capacity of CFT stub columns with
high-strength concrete could be predicted by
P u ⫽A c f c 共 1⫹k␰ 兲 (3)
where k⫽1.6– 1.8. All the results in combination with the
achievements of Shosuke Morino 共1998兲 pronounced that the
confinement effects increased the axial capacity evidently.
Table 1. Test Results by the Discussers and Other Researchers
fc Ac fy Aa P u,cal P u,t P u,t /
Column 共MPa兲 (mm2 ) 共MPa兲 (mm2 ) ␰ 共kN兲 共kN兲 P u,cal
STCC-4a 53.9 8,908 364 1,353 1.03 972.6 1,231 1.266
STCC-5a 67.4 8,908 364 1,353 0.82 1,092.9 1,413 1.293
B-1b 72.7 19,359 372 5,246 1.39 3,358.9 6,030 1.795
B-2b 72.7 19,359 372 5,246 1.39 3,358.9 6,080 1.810
C-1b 69.5 32,557 377 5,111 0.85 4,189.6 5,660 1.351
C-2b 69.5 32,557 377 5,111 0.85 4,189.6 5,660 1.351
a
The specimens tested by the discussers. Fig. 1. Vertical stress and hoop stress versus vertical strain of steel
tube
b
Tested by Gu et al. 共1991兲.

152 / JOURNAL OF STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING © ASCE / JANUARY 2004

J. Struct. Eng. 2004.130:152-153.

 columns, the shell together with the core resisted the load from
the beginning of loading till the end of loading. For a different
loading condition, the stress in the steel tube went through a dif-
ferent path, however, the columns achieved the same load capac-
ity. It shows that the CFT columns have the robust ability to
withstand the loading conditions. It is convenient for engineers to
deal with the erection of CFT columns.
Notation
The following symbols are used in this discussion:
A a ⫽ section area of steel tube;
A c ⫽ section area of concrete core;
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d ⫽ diameter of steel tube;
f c ⫽ axial compressive strength of concrete;
f h ⫽ hoop stress of steel tube;
f v ⫽ vertical stress of steel tube;
f y ⫽ yield strength of steel tube;
k ⫽ 1.6– 1.8;
P u ⫽ axial capacity of CFT stub columns calculated by
Eqs. 共2兲 and 共3兲;
P u,cal ⫽ theoretical ultimate load resistance for short-stub
column according to Eq. 共1兲 in original paper;
JOURNAL OF STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING © ASCE / JANUARY 2004 / 153
J. Struct. Eng. 2004.130:152-153.
P u,t ⫽ test ultimate load resistance for short-stub column;
t ⫽ thickness of steel tube;
␧v ⫽ vertical strain of steel tube; and
␰ ⫽ A a f y /A c f c .
References
Cai, S., and Jiao, Z. 共1984兲. ‘‘Behavior and ultimate strength of short
concrete-filled steel tubular columns.’’ J. Build. Struct., 1984共6兲,
13–29 共in Chinese兲.
Gu, W., Cai, S., and Feng, W. 共1991兲. ‘‘Behavior and ultimate strength of
steel tubes filled with high-strength concrete.’’ Build. Sci., 1991共1兲,
23–27.
Hibbit, Karlsson, and Sorensen 共HKS兲. 共1997兲. ABAQUS/standard user’s
manual, version 5.7, Hibbit, Karlsson, & Sorensen, Pawtucket, R.I.
Morino, S. 共1998兲. ‘‘An overview of U.S.-Japan cooperative earthquake
research program on CFT columns systems.’’ Structural engineers
world congress, San Francisco, T169–1
Sen, H. K. 共1969兲. ‘‘Triaxial effects in concrete-filled tubular steel col-
umns.’’ Thesis, Univ. of London, England.
Xu, J. 共1989兲. ‘‘A knowledge and data based kinematic hardening and
softening constitutive model for concrete.’’ PhD Thesis, Dept. of Civil
Eng., Univ. of Tsinghua, China.