ACI STRUCTURAL JOURNAL
Title No. 116-S142
Axially Loaded Thin-Walled Square Concrete-Filled Steel
Tubes Stiffened with Diagonal Binding Ribs
by Dan Gan, Zheng Zhou, and Xuhong Zhou
Diagonal binding ribs made of perforated, thin-walled steel plates
and welded to the adjacent sides of the steel tube of a square
concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) column are expected to delay
the local buckling of the steel tube and better confine the infilled
concrete. In this paper, 21 CFST stub columns were tested under
axial compression to investigate the effects of the diagonal ribs.
Particularly, four specimens with high-strength concrete were
tested. Test results indicated that the continuous confinement from
the diagonal binding ribs could effectively improve the composite
effect of the stiffened square CFST columns, while the discontin-
uous ribs reduced the strength little but reduced the ductility to
some extent. The stiffened specimens with high-strength concrete
had moderate ductile capacity although they behaved less ductile
than the specimens with normal-strength concrete. Finally, a
load-carrying capacity calculation method was proposed and
compared with design guidelines.
Keywords: axial compression behavior; confined concrete; diagonal binding
rib; ductility; high-strength concrete; load-carrying capacity prediction; stiff-
ened concrete-filled steel tube; thin-walled concrete-filled steel tube.
RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE
The use of thin-walled square concrete-filled steel tubular
(CFST) members has certain economic advantages and thin-
walled square CFST columns are in a great demand in prac-
tical engineering. Moreover, thinner steel tubes can be more
conveniently fabricated. However, the confinement from the
square steel tube of a square CFST column to the concrete
core is largely reduced, especially with high-strength
concrete, and local buckling is more likely to occur. Thus,
this paper investigates the effects of diagonal binding ribs,
which would significantly improve the structural behavior of
square CFST columns, by axial compression testing.
INTRODUCTION
Concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) members are widely
used all over the world because of their structural and
economic merits, including high load-carrying capacity,
favorable ductility capacity, large energy absorption capacity,
easy construction, and economic advantages.1-5 Square
CFST members are widely used as columns, piers, bridge
arches and towers, and truss members due to their advan-
tages such as better satisfying the architectural requirements
and larger moment of inertia when compared with circular
CFST members. However, the confinement from the square
steel tube to the concrete core is largely reduced (Fig. 1(a)),
especially with high-strength concrete, and local buckling is
more likely to occur (Fig. 1(b)).6,7
ACI Structural Journal/November 2019
TECHNICAL PAPER
Fig. 1—Drawbacks of square CFST columns.
To enhance the confinement from the square or rectangular
steel tube to the concrete core, various stiffeners welded to
the steel tube were proposed, including longitudinal steel
plate stiffeners,8-10 shear studs,11 binding bars,12 tie bars,13
reinforcement cages,14,15 steel bar stiffeners,16 tab stiffeners,17
and Perfobond Leiste (PBL) stiffeners.18 Furthermore, in
high-rise buildings, mega-columns are usually used because
of huge vertical forces.19 In mega-columns, a combination of
two or more stiffening methods—such as longitudinal ribs,
studs and internal diaphragms—are applied, as shown in
Fig. 2, leading to complex fabrication of rectangular CFST
columns.
The use of overlapping hoops consisting of square and octag-
onal hoops to improve the confinement effect is common in
reinforced concrete (RC) columns (Fig. 3(a)).20-23 Recently,
diagonal ribs or plates only welding at each corner of the
tube in the potential plastic hinge region of a steel-jacketed
RC column were proposed by Liu et al.24 and Gan et al.25
(Fig. 3(b)). Similar to the square RC columns confined by
overlapping hoops, the steel jacketed columns with diagonal
stiffeners showed improved deformation and load-bearing
capacity.
On the basis of these aforementioned improvement
schemes, a type of stiffened square CFST column, in which
diagonal binding ribs (diagonal ribs, for short) with circular
openings were welded at adjacent sides of the square steel
tube, was proposed by the authors26,27; the fabrication
process of the diagonal ribs stiffened square steel tube is
depicted in Fig. 4.
Compared with steel-jacketed RC columns with diagonal
stiffeners, the steel tubes of the proposed square concrete-
filled steel tubes stiffened with diagonal ribs in this paper
ACI Structural Journal, V. 116, No. 6, November 2019.
MS No. S-2018-517.R, doi: 10.14359/51718015, received December 3, 2018, and
reviewed under Institute publication policies. Copyright © 2019, American Concrete
Institute. All rights reserved, including the making of copies unless permission is
obtained from the copyright proprietors. Pertinent discussion including author’s
closure, if any, will be published ten months from this journal’s date if the discussion
is received within four months of the paper’s print publication.
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