Strength Calculation of Short Concrete-filled Steel Tube Columns

Abstract The aim of this work is to propose a technique to calculate the strength of short concrete-filled steel tube columns under the short-term action of a compressive load, based on the phenomenological approach and the theoretical positions of reinforced concrete mechanics. The main dependencies that allow the realization of the deformation calculation model in practice are considered. A distinctive feature of the proposed approach is the method of the multipoint construction of deformation diagrams for a concrete core and steel shell. In this case, two main factors are taken into account. First, the steel shell and the concrete core work under conditions of a complex stress state. Since the proposed dependencies to determine the strength and the ultimate relative strain of volumetrically compressed concrete are obtained phenomenologically, they are more versatile than the commonly used empirical formulas. In particular, they can be used for self-stressing, fine-grained and other types of concrete. Second, with a step-by-step increase in the relative deformation, the lateral pressure on a concrete core and a steel shell constantly change. Thus, the parametric points of the concrete and steel deformation diagrams also change at each step. This circumstance was not taken into account in earlier calculations. A comparison of the theoretical and experimental results indicates that the practical application of the developed calculation procedure gives a reliable and fairly stable estimate of the stress–strain state and the strength of concrete-filled steel tube columns