Thin-Walled Structures 105 (2016) 220–230

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Thin-Walled Structures
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tws

Full length article

Experimental behaviour of circular concrete filled steel tube columns

and design specifications
Talha Ekmekyapar n, Baraa J.M. AL-Eliwi
Civil Engineering Department, University of Gaziantep, 27310 Gaziantep, Turkey

art ic l e i nf o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper presents 18 tests conducted on short, medium and long circular Concrete Filled Steel Tube
Received 11 November 2015 (CFST) columns. To explore the impact of column parameters and confinement effect three L/D ratios, two
Received in revised form D/t ratios, two steel qualities and three concrete classes were employed. Some specimens have properties
28 March 2016
within application limits of EC4 and AISC 360-10 whereas others have properties beyond the application
Accepted 4 April 2016
Available online 13 May 2016
limits. Since new, large and efficient structures require adoption of high strength materials, it is com-
pulsory to push the limits of design specifications. It is shown that 56 MPa and 66 MPa concretes provide
Keywords: very smooth and ductile load-shortening curves which imply high deformation capacity of such concrete
Circular CFST columns classes. Brittle nature of 107 MPa concrete is shown by very sharp transitions from pre-peak to post-peak
Experiments
region and sudden discharge of loading in load-shortening curves. Additionally, 239 experimental data
Confinement effect
were collected from literature to assess EC4 and AISC 360-10 predictions within application limits and
Design specifications
beyond application limits. Instead of focusing on a narrow region of configurations, this paper examines
the performance of prediction methods on short, medium and long CFST columns. EC4 predictions in-
dicate much better agreement with the test results. However AISC 360-10 predictions are conservative
for all combinations of parameters. The application limits of EC4 can be widened to cover solutions of
columns with broader properties. Confinement effect should be handled elaborately in AISC 360-10
formulations. L/D and relative slenderness are key parameters and have direct impact on column be-
haviour. However D/t does not have direct impact on column behaviour.
& 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction geometrical and mechanical properties of materials, circular tubes

enable concrete core to exhibit higher performance than its
Concrete Filled Steel Tube (CFST) columns have distinctive characteristic compressive strength [11].
characteristics which allow use of such compression members in Research into the compression performance of circular CFST
challenging engineering fields. High rise buildings [1,2], deep un- columns has been widely carried out in recent decades. Strength of
derground tunnels [3], bridges [4,5] and towers [6] are some ex- stub CFST columns has attracted the attention of many researchers
amples of structures in which CFST columns are deployed as main [1,2,9,12–14]. Considering the practical applications, the behaviour
load carrying members. High energy absorption capacity, stiffness of long CFST columns was also investigated in past [10,15–17].
and ductility of CFST columns motivate engineers to adopt such However a recent paper by Kang et al. [18] reports that a number
members in earthquake prone zones [6,7]. The steel tubing serves of experimental studies conducted on long columns is less than
as a formwork for concrete core, thus construction time and costs the number of studies on stub columns. Also in the same paper, it
can be observed that the studied material parameters range is not
can be reduced [7–9]. Further cost savings can be provided since
wide enough to capture underlying mechanics of CFST columns
CFST columns cover smaller areas on storeys compared to bare
adequately. For example, concrete strength between 80 and
steel and reinforced concrete counterparts [1]. Also the concrete
110 MPa was used in 6.6% of circular stub columns. On the other
core precludes early local buckling of steel and improves the
hand just 3.8% of long column tests were conducted using concrete
performance of entire composite cross section [5,10]. The con-
strength between 60 and 96 MPa. The paper presented by Kang
finement effect of circular steel tubes on concrete is the most
et al. [18] reports these statistical information based on the data-
prominent characteristic of CFST columns. With proper base developed by Tao et al. [19] in 2008. Lots of studies on CFST
columns have been published since Tao et al. [19] presented the
n
Corresponding author. database. However, there is still need for more experimental stu-
E-mail address: ekmekyapar@gantep.edu.tr (T. Ekmekyapar). dies on long columns and broader material parameters to be able

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tws.2016.04.004
0263-8231/& 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 T. Ekmekyapar, B.J.M. AL-Eliwi / Thin-Walled Structures 105 (2016) 220–230 221

to understand the behaviour of circular CFST columns explicitly. 2. Experimental research

The need for more CFST column experimental data to calibrate
specification formulations was also highlighted in a document 2.1. Material properties
which was published as “Commentary on the AISC 360-10 Speci-
fication of Structural Steel Buildings” [20]. Two different steel qualities were employed for CFST column
Practical formulations of design specifications help engineers specimens. The first one is European S235 steel, with 235 MPa
predict the capacity of CFST columns. American AISC 360-10 [21], yield strength and 2.74 mm thickness and the second is European
European Eurocode-4 (EC4) [22], Japanese AIJ 2008 [23], Aus- S355 steel, with 355 MPa yield strength and 5.90 mm thickness.
tralian AS 5100.6 [24], Chinese DBJ/T13-51-2010 [25] and South The main idea behind the selection of material and thickness
African SANS 10162-1 [26] are some specifications which are properties is to examine behaviours of columns with low and high
employed for this purpose. Expected performances of those design confinement factors ( ξ ), Eq. (1). Confinement factor is a practical
specifications differ in predicting the capacity of CFST columns. parameter which has been used by several researchers to roughly
Several researchers showed that for stub columns AISC 360-10 characterize confinement capability of the column. This factor can
gives conservative predictions compared to experiments be employed for circular [5,27,28] as well as rectangular [29,30]
[1,5,9,12,14]. Based on experimental results of short and long CFST columns.
columns Oliveira [15] also highlighted conservative predictions of As f y
AISC 360-10. On the other hand, capacity prediction of EC4 for stub ξ=
A c fc (1)
columns was reported to be unconservative [1,15]. On the con-
trary, some other experimental results of stub columns were found where As and Ac are the cross sectional areas of the steel tube and
to be very close to EC4 predictions [9,12,14]. For longer columns core concrete, respectively. f y is the yield strength of steel and fc is
Oliveira [15] reported that EC4 predictions are very close to ex- the compressive strength of concrete. Also, the values of the above
perimental results but still on unconservative side. Dundu [16] parameters ( As , Ac , f y and fc ) directly affect the steel contribution
assessed EC4 predictions against his experiments on long columns ratio ( δ ), which is an important parameter in EC4. This parameter
which have L/D ratios ranging from 6 to 21.7 and concluded that is introduced in Section 6 in Eq. (21). The above parameters allow
EC4 predictions are conservative up to 25%. Zeghiche [10] assessed testing columns with steel contribution ratio within and beyond
test results of very long CFST columns which have L/D ratios the applicability limits of EC4.
greater than 12.5 against EC4 predictions and reported that EC4 Three different concrete mixes were prepared. Cylinder con-
predictions are on the safe side. Aforementioned conclusions of crete compression specimens of 100  200 mm size were cast from
specification assessments also denote the need for more experi- the concrete batch. Considering the small diameter of tubes,
ments to shed light on the behaviour of circular CFST columns. coarse aggregate of maximum diameter of 10 mm and fine ag-
However, to provide new drawbacks novel characteristics are re- gregate (sand) were used in the concrete mix. Moulds were filled
quired for new experiments. Significant amount of experiments in three layers and a shaking table was used to compact the con-
with mean material and geometrical properties which comply crete after each layer. Concrete specimens were crushed in ac-
cordance with ASTM C39/C39M [31] after curing stage. Measured
with the applicability limits of the specifications have already been
average compressive strengths of concrete mixes are 56.20 MPa,
published. Hence, new experiments should push the limits of
66.75 MPa and 107.20 MPa. In the present study, these levels of
design specifications.
concrete strengths were deliberately chosen to test columns which
The aim of this paper is thus twofold; The first aim is to ex-
have concrete properties close to the upper limits of design spe-
amine the experimental performance of circular CFST columns
cifications and far away from those limits. New, large and efficient
which have properties close to the application limits and beyond
structures require the adoption of high strength materials, and
the limits of the design specifications of AISC 360-10 and EC4. To
thus high strength CFST columns are particularly appropriate for
this end, 18 CFST specimens, including short, medium and long
investigation.
columns were tested to failure under compressive loading. Column
lengths were chosen with the intent to observe the confinement
2.2. Column specimens
effect. Towards this aim, three L/D and two D/t ratios were con-
sidered. Three levels of concrete strength of 56 MPa, 66 MPa and
Column specimens were manufactured using 114.3 mm dia-
107 MPa were utilized to assess the effect of concrete strength on
meter steel tubes. Three L/D and two D/t ratios were specified for
column performance. Concrete strengths of 56 MPa and 66 MPa
the specimens. These tube properties were selected to allow dif-
are very close to the applicability boundaries of AISC 360-10 and
ferent types of failure behaviours to take place under compressive
EC4 specifications. On the other hand, 107 MPa concrete strength
loading. Properties of CFST column specimens are presented in
is far away from the applicability boundaries of both AISC 360-10
Table 1. Employed specimen naming system in Table 1 includes
and EC4. Steel tubes with S235 and S355 European steel qualities circular tube diameter (D), tube thickness (t), column length (L)
were used to develop different confinement effects. The above and core concrete strength ( fc ), respectively. For example, the
properties enabled the authors to test CFST columns with con- specimen 114.3-2.74-300-56 represents CFST column with
finement factors ranging from 0.226 to 1.538 and steel contribu- 114.3 mm outer diameter, 2.74 tube thickness, 300 mm length and
tion factors (a parameter used in EC4) from 0.185 to 0.606. The 56 MPa core concrete strength. The seventh and eighth columns of
second aim of this paper is to make a general assessment of pre- Table 1 present the confinement factor ( ξ ) and steel contribution
diction methods of AISC 360-10 and EC4. After detailing experi- ratio ( δ ), respectively.
mental behaviour of 18 CFST columns with above properties, 239 Prior to filling the concrete, the ends of each tube specimen
additional CFST column data which were collected from literature were machined to insure maximum uniformity of contact with the
and cover a relatively wide range of parameters were utilized to loading heads of the testing machine. Providing the uniformity
make reliable assessments of specifications. Evaluations under- and flatness of column ends is a crucial step in column testing
taken on 257 CFST column experiments have the potential to de- procedure to obtain reliable test results [32]. The machining pro-
pict the effects of column parameters on compression capacity and cess of steel tubes is shown in Fig. 1.
prediction capability of design specifications more precisely. In order to provide appropriate interaction between the steel
222 T. Ekmekyapar, B.J.M. AL-Eliwi / Thin-Walled Structures 105 (2016) 220–230

Table 1
Properties of column specimens.

Column L/D t (mm) D (mm) fc (MPa) fy (MPa) Conf. Fac. ( ξ ) Steel Cont. ( δ ) Nexp (kN) SI

114.3-2.74-300-56 2.62 2.74 114.3 56.20 235 0.432 0.301 901.81 1.35
114.3-2.74-300-66 66.75 0.364 0.267 981.23 1.30
114.3-2.74-300-107 107.20 0.226 0.185 1295.06 1.21
114.3-5.90-300-56 5.9 56.20 355 1.538 0.606 1753.77 1.58
114.3-5.90-300-66 66.75 1.295 0.564 1818.62 1.54
114.3-5.90-300-107 107.20 0.806 0.446 1989.86 1.36
114.3-2.74-600-56 5.25 2.74 56.20 235 0.432 0.301 947.75 1.41
114.3-2.74-600-66 66.75 0.364 0.267 1031.92 1.37
114.3-2.74-600-107 107.20 0.226 0.185 1296.61 1.21
114.3-5.90-600-56 5.9 56.20 355 1.538 0.606 1723.19 1.56
114.3-5.90-600-66 66.75 1.295 0.564 1810.94 1.53
114.3-5.90-600-107 107.20 0.806 0.446 1968.06 1.34
114.3-2.74-900-56 7.87 2.74 56.20 235 0.432 0.301 877.28 1.31
114.3-2.74-900-66 66.75 0.364 0.267 983.51 1.30
114.3-2.74-900-107 107.20 0.226 0.185 1233.24 1.15
114.3-5.90-900-56 5.9 56.20 355 1.538 0.606 1592.48 1.44
114.3-5.90-900-66 66.75 1.295 0.564 1713.34 1.46
114.3-5.90-900-107 107.20 0.806 0.446 1907.29 1.30

Fig. 1. Machining of steel tubes.

tubes and the infill concrete, inner surfaces of steel tubes were
cleaned from dust. In order to restrict the fresh concrete, thick
mica plates were used at the bottom ends of tubes. Silicon was
used to connect the mica plates to the bottom ends of the steel
tubes. There was no bond between mica material and concrete, so,
flat surfaces of concrete at the bottom ends were obtained easily Fig. 2. Column specimens.
after removing mica plates. Steel tubes with 300 mm, 600 mm and
900 mm lengths were filled with concrete in 3, 5 and 7 layers, 3. Test results and discussions
respectively. A shaking table was activated after each layer to
eliminate entrapped air. Flat surfaces of concrete have to be ob- Discussions of CFST column test results are given in this section,
tained at upper ends of columns as well. To accomplish this goal, in conjunction with end shortening versus compression loading
the top last 10 mm of steel tubes were left empty. After completing curves and failure behaviour of specimens. End shortening versus
the curing process, the top of the columns was levelled using high compression loading curves delineate stiffness, ductility and
strength leveling epoxy. Fig. 2 illustrates 18 CFST column speci- toughness behaviours of columns. Behaviour of concrete core can
mens, which are ready for testing. also be captured by observing load-shortening curves. Strength
Before the test, mica plates were removed from the bottom index (SI) is also used to compare the performance of the columns.
ends of the columns and silicone residues were cleaned. Speci- SI is a very useful measure for composite action and confinement
mens were carefully centered in the testing machine to eliminate assessments in CFST columns and has been used in literature
the possibility of eccentric loading. A displacement controlled [5,27,33,34]. SI is defined as follows:
loading with a rate of 0.4 mm/min was applied to all column
Nu
specimens up to end of the tests, as shown Fig. 3. Compression SI =
As f y +0. 85A c fc (2)
loading versus end shortening data of specimens were recorded to
be able to discuss the behaviour of columns in pre-collapse and where Nu is the compression capacity of a composite column
post-collapse regions. section, determined by experiment or design specifications. The
 T. Ekmekyapar, B.J.M. AL-Eliwi / Thin-Walled Structures 105 (2016) 220–230 223

Fig. 4. Failure modes of 300 mm columns (a) 114.3-2.74-300-107 (b) 114.3-5.90-

300-107.

Fig. 3. Column test.

denominator in Eq. (2) is called as squash load of a section [2]. The

factor, 0.85, is used in the calculation of the concrete cross sec-
tional strength to compensate for uncertainties inherent in the
concrete itself. The squash load formulation is also used in ACI [35]
and AS 3600-2009 [36] specifications to calculate the strength of
composite sections. Compression load capacities of specimens and
corresponding SI of the columns are given in ninth and tenth
columns of Table 1, respectively.
Fig. 5. Compression load - shortening curves of 300 mm columns.

3.1. 300 mm columns

it is worth to note that the transition from pre-peak region to post-
The columns with 300 mm length are considered as stub col- peak region is very sharp for this specimen, as shown in Fig. 5.
umns. Typical failure mechanism of these columns was crushing of Also, the curve has an unsmooth behaviour in the post-peak re-
concrete and yielding of steel, as expected. Local buckling of the gion. These behaviours are attributed to brittle nature of 107 MPa
steel tube was also observed for all columns in this set. Failure concrete. This means that the steel tube of specimen 114.3-2.74-
modes of some specimens in this set are shown in Fig. 4. Although 300-107 is not able to effectively confine the 107 MPa concrete
there are some common characteristics with regard to failure be- core to the same magnitude it confines 56 MPa and 66 MPa con-
haviours of columns in this set, differences in concrete and steel cretes. A SI of 1.21 for this column supports this conclusion.
properties led to different responses in load-shortening curves. Nevertheless, a SI of 1.21 is still favourable since the performance
Fig. 5 presents load-shortening curves of six 300 mm stub of this specimen is 21% higher than squash load.
columns. Specimens with 5.90 mm tube thickness and 355 MPa yield
The ultimate load of column specimen 114.3-2.74-300-56 was strength provided greater performance. It can be observed in Fig. 5
recorded to be 901.81kN. The load-shortening curve of this column that an increase in tube thickness and yield strength led to higher
is very smooth, as shown in Fig. 5, which implies a high de- initial stiffness, ductility and toughness. Confinement character-
formation capacity of the 56 MPa core concrete. The SI of this istic of this steel tube was also shown to be superior. Compression
specimen is 1.35, which means a good confinement effect was load capacities of specimens 114.3-5.90-300-56, 114.3-5.90-300-
provided in this column configuration. Specimen 114.3-2.74-300- 66 and 114.3-5.90-300-107 are 1753.77 kN, 1818.62 and
66 developed a compression capacity of 981.23 kN and the load- 1989.86 kN respectively. Also, the corresponding SI of these spe-
shortening curve of this specimen has also a smooth behaviour, as cimens of 1.58, 1.54 and 1.36 are larger than the SI magnitudes of
shown in Fig. 5. This level of concrete strength has also a good columns with 2.74 mm thickness and 235 MPa yield strength.
level of deformation capacity and the SI of this column is equal to From the discussion, it can be concluded that thicker steel tubes
1.30. This value of SI implies that the 66 MPa concrete exhibits with higher yield strength have considerable influence on con-
slightly lower confinement performance compared to 56 MPa finement effect. Also, it has been shown again that increment in
concrete. Specimen 114.3-2.74-300-107 achieved a compression concrete strength decreases the effectiveness of steel tube in
capacity of 1295.06 kN. However the load-shortening curve of this confining the concrete core. Load-shortening curves of these
specimen has distinct characteristics that are different to the specimens exhibit some similar behaviours to curves of specimens
curves of specimens with 56 MPa and 66 MPa concrete cores. First, with 2.74 mm tube thickness and 235 MPa yield strength. Load-
224 T. Ekmekyapar, B.J.M. AL-Eliwi / Thin-Walled Structures 105 (2016) 220–230

shortening curves of specimens 114.3-5.90-300-56 and 114.3-5.90-

300-66 have smooth behaviours while specimen with 114.3-5.90-
300-107 has a sharp transition from pre-peak region to post-peak
region. Also, this specimen experienced a sudden discharge of load
just after reaching compression capacity. Brittle nature of 107 MPa
concrete was also reduced with this steel tube.
Although the confinement effect of thicker tube was proven to
be greater than thinner tube, it is noted that the 107 MPa concrete
core contributed to compression load capacity more for thinner
tube. Thinner tubes filled with 56 MPa and 107 MPa concrete have
compression capacities of 901.81 kN and 1295.06 kN, respectively.
In this case, the 107 MPa concrete core achieved 43.61% com-
pression capacity increment. On the other hand, thicker tubes
filled with 56 MPa and 107 MPa concrete have 1753.77 kN and
1989.86 kN compression capacities, respectively. This means that
the use of 107 MPa concrete core increased the compression load
Fig. 6. Crippling in specimen with thinner tube (Specimen 114.3-2.74-300-66).
capacity just by 13.46%, compared to the capacity of the same tube
filled with 56 MPa concrete.
Initial stiffness of columns is another critical parameter in length. Also, more end shortening was observed in the specimen
structural evaluations. Specimens with 107 MPa concrete core with 107 MPa concrete core at peak compression load, compared
have lower initial stiffness than that of columns with 56 MPa and to the 300 mm specimen.
66 MPa concrete. These lower stiffness behaviours can be attrib- As for the influence of the 107 MPa concrete to compression
uted to the amount of fine aggregate used in per m3 of concrete. In load capacity, compared to the performance of 56 MPa concrete, a
order to obtain a level of 107 MPa compressive strength it was 36.81% increment was realized in specimens with thinner tubes
required to use much more fine material in mix design and this whereas this capacity increment is just 14.2% for thicker tubes.
caused a reduction in initial stiffness of CFST columns. Reduction in initial stiffness due to the use of large amount of
Failure modes of the specimens are also important in the per- fine aggregate per m3 was again observed in columns with
formance assessment of CFST columns. There exist some main 107 MPa concrete.
differences between failure modes of columns with 2.74 mm and
5.90 mm tube thicknesses. Outward local buckling behaviour of 3.3. 900 mm columns
steel tubes was observed in all specimens of this set. Also, at
higher shortening levels crippling type of failures occurred in the Global mode of failure was more dominant in 900 mm col-
columns with thinner tubes. Fig. 6 illustrates the crippling beha- umns. Failure modes of some specimens are depicted in Fig. 9. In
viour in specimen 114.3-2.74-300-66 as an example. Such beha- addition to the global mode of failure, local modes of crippling
viour was not observed in specimens with thicker tubes. were observed in the columns with thinner steel tube. This type of
local failure can be observed in Fig. 9a (concave side of column at
3.2. 600 mm columns mid-height level). In order to provide a clear vision of this beha-
viour, Fig. 10 presents an extended view of this local mode of
All specimens of 600 mm columns showed evidence of inter- failure. Compression load- shortening curves of six 900 mm spe-
action between global and local failure modes. However, such cimens are presented in Fig. 11.
combined failure mode is more dominant in columns with thinner Specimens 114.3-2.74-900-56, 114.3-2.74-900-66 and 114.3-
tubes. Fig. 7 shows the failure modes of some columns in this set. 2.74-900-107 developed compression load capacities of 877.28 kN,
Load-shortening curves of 600 mm columns are presented in 983.51 kN and 1233.24 kN, respectively with corresponding SI of
Fig. 8. 1.31, 1.30 and 1.15. Considering the SI magnitudes of 300 mm and
Specimen 114.3-2.74-600-56 achieved a compression load ca- 600 mm columns with thinner tubes, it can be obviously seen that
pacity of 947.75 kN and a SI of 1.41, specimen 114.3-2.74-600-66 increment in L/D ratio reduces the confinement effect. Although
achieved a compression load capacity of 1031.92 kN and a SI of the transition from pre-peak to post-peak region is more gradual
1.37 and, specimen 114.3-2.74-600-107 achieved a compression for specimen with 107 MPa concrete core and 900 mm length,
load capacity of 1296.61 kN and a SI of 1.21. It can be observed that brittle behaviour of 107 MPa concrete still shows itself on the load
the increment in concrete strength reduces the confinement effect. shortening curve (Fig. 11). Also, a larger shortening value was re-
The brittle nature of the 107 MPa concrete was also visible in the corded at peak compression load level for all specimens with
load-shortening curve. However, the transition from pre-peak to 107 MPa concrete compared to shortening levels of 300 mm and
post-peak region is not as sharp as the 300 mm column. Also, the 600 mm columns with the same tube thickness and concrete
600 mm column with 107 MPa concrete exhibited more end strength, (Figs. 5, 8 and 11).
shortening at peak compression load level, compared to 300 mm Increments in tube thickness and yield strength in the 900 mm
counterpart in Fig. 5. column led to higher stiffness, ductility and toughness in this set,
An increase in stiffness, ductility and toughness was again ob- as shown in Fig. 11. Specimens 114.3-5.90-900-56, 114.3-5.90-900-
served with the increase in tube thickness and yield strength. 66 and 114.3-5.90-900-107 achieved compression load capacities
Compression load capacities of specimens 114.3-5.90-600-56, of 1592.48 kN, 1713.34 kN and 1907.29 kN, respectively, and the
114.3-5.90-600-66 and 114.3-5.90-600-107 are 1723.19 kN, 1810.- corresponding SI of the specimens are 1.44, 1.46 and 1.30. An
94 kN and 1968.06 kN, respectively and the corresponding SI anomaly in SI magnitudes was observed in this set. The SI mag-
magnitudes are 1.56, 1.53 and 1.34. Superior confinement effect of nitude of specimen 114.3-5.90-900-56 was expected to be larger
thicker tubes with higher yield strength is also noted in this set. As than that of specimen 114.3-5.90-900-66. This inconsistent beha-
with previous sets, the brittle behaviour of the 107 MPa concrete viour can be attributed to uncertainties generated by the concrete
core can be observed in Fig. 8, however the discharge of the load, strength. In general, these SI magnitudes are smaller than the SI
after peak load is not sudden as it was with the column of 300 mm magnitudes of columns of 300 mm and 600 mm length with same
 T. Ekmekyapar, B.J.M. AL-Eliwi / Thin-Walled Structures 105 (2016) 220–230 225

Fig. 7. Failure modes of 600 mm columns (a) 114.3-2.74-600-56 (b) 114.3-2.74-

600-66.

Fig. 9. Failure modes of 900 mm columns (a) 114.3-2.74-900-56 (b) 114.3-5.90-

900-107.

thinner tubes.
As explained in previous sections, the fine aggregate in the
107 MPa concrete causes the low initial stiffness in specimens
114.3-2.74-900-107 and 114.3-5.90-900-107 compared to speci-
mens with 56 MPa and 66 MPa concrete.

4. Design specifications

EC4 and AISC 360-10 standards are used in this paper. EC4
adopts the limit state design to provide for serviceability and
safety, by employing some partial safety factors to load and ma-
Fig. 8. Compression load - shortening curves of 600 mm columns. terial properties. On the other hand, the AISC 360-10 procedure,
which is based on structural steel design, allows the use of either
steel thickness and concrete strength. Thus, the effect of L/D ratio the limit state or the allowable stress design. In addition to 18
on confinement can be noticed here again. Although the fall in the novel test results presented in this paper, 239 CFST column test
load of the specimen 114.3-5.90-900-107 is more gradual com- data on circular sections were collected from literature. In total,
pared to the fall in the load of 300 mm and 600 mm columns, the 215 test data (repetitive tests reduce the number of unique col-
brittle behaviour of the 107 MPa concrete was observed up to end umns) which cover a relatively wide range of CFST column para-
of the test for this specimen, (Fig. 11). This behaviour is most likely meters, were employed in the design specification calculations.
due to the global failure mode of the column. With global failure Table 2 presents the number of CFST columns tested in each lit-
mode, tension and compression crack regions spread out from erature study and the ranges of the physical properties of the
column mid-height to lower and upper ends. This behaviour columns. In all design specification assessments material partial
causes gradual concrete failures at different shortening levels. A safety factors were set to unity.
similar behaviour also was observed for specimen 114.3-2.74-900-
107, (Fig. 11). 4.1. Eurocode-4
For the 900 mm column with thinner tube the 107 MPa con-
crete core increased the compression load capacity of the column Plastic resistance of the concrete filled composite section is
by 40.56%, compared to compression load capacity of the same calculated by adding the resistance of the constituent steel and
tube with 56 MPa concrete. On the other hand, the contribution of concrete materials as follows:
the 107 MPa concrete to the compression load capacity of the Npl,Rd = As f y +A c fc (3)
thicker tube is 19.76%. As with previous tests, 107 MPa concrete
again contributed much more to compression load capacity of Square and rectangular tubes offer little confinement because
226 T. Ekmekyapar, B.J.M. AL-Eliwi / Thin-Walled Structures 105 (2016) 220–230

π 2 (EI )e
Ncr =
L2 (8)

in which (EI )e refers to the effective stiffness of the member which

is given by:
(EI )e = Es Is+Ke Ec Ic (9)

where Es is the elastic modulus of steel and Ec is the elastic

fc +8 MPa 0.3
modulus of concrete defined by Ec = 22000 ( 10 ) . Is is mo-
ment of inertia of steel tube and Ic is moment of inertia of concrete
core. Finally, Ke is a correction factor equal to 0.6. EC4 also con-
siders the effects of imperfections that might cause second order
moments by multiplying the column plastic resistance by a re-
duction factor χ :
1
χ = ≤ 1. 0
∅+⎣ ∅ − λ¯2⎤⎦
⎡ 2 0.5
(10)

The reduction factor χ is calculated using European column

Fig. 10. Local failure region of specimen 114.3-2.74-900-56.
curves and the parameter ∅ is evaluated as follows:

∅ = 0. 5 ⎡⎣ 1 + α ( λ¯ −0. 2)+λ¯2⎤⎦ (11)

in which α is an imperfection factor, equal to 0.21 for circular CFST

columns.

4.2. AISC-360-10

For axially loaded CFST columns based on slenderness of

member, AISC 360-10 calculates compressive load capacity as
follows:
⎡ Pno ⎤
Pno
Pn = Pno ⎢ 0.658 Pe ⎥ ≤ 2.25
⎣ ⎦ Pe
Pno
Pn = 0.877Pe > 2.25
Pe (12)

where Pno is the nominal compressive capacity of the composite

Fig. 11. Compression load - shortening curves of 900 mm columns.
section and Pe is the Euler critical load, which is calculated using
effective stiffness (EI )e :
the walls in these tubes must resist the concrete pressure by plate (EI )e = Es Is+C3 Ec Ic (13)
bending, instead of generated hoop stress in circular sections [44].
For the circular CFST columns, EC4 presents an explicit formulation Elastic modulus of concrete in AISC 360-10 is given by
which also incorporates the confinement effect, as follows: Ec = 4700 fc and C3 is the coefficient for effective rigidity of the
filled composite column:
⎛ t fy ⎞
Npl,Rd = ηa As f y +A c fc ⎜⎜ 1 + ηc ⎡ As ⎤
⎟⎟ C3 = 0. 6 + 2 ⎢ ⎥ ≤ 0. 9
⎝ D fc ⎠ (4) ⎣ A c + As ⎦ (14)
in which ηa is the steel reduction factor and ηc is the concrete AISC 360-10 considers local buckling effect using three differ-
enhancement factor. If eccentricity is smaller than 10% of the ex- ent classifications for steel tubes. A circular CFST member is con-
ternal diameter of the steel tube, the steel reduction and the sidered to be compact if D/t ratio is lower than λ p = 0.15Es/f y . The
concrete enhancement factors are evaluated as follows: section is considered to be non-compact if D/t ratio is greater than
λ p but lower than λr = 0.19Es/f y . Finally, the section is considered
ηa = 0. 25 ( 3 + 2λ¯ ) ≤ 1. 0 (5) to be slender when D/t ratio is larger than λr . The nominal com-
pressive capacity of the composite section Pno is calculated ac-
ηc = 4. 9 − 18. 5λ¯ +17λ¯2 ≥ 0 (6) cording to these classifications of the sections. For compact sec-
tions nominal compressive capacity is equal to plastic strength of
EC4 considers the confinement effect in circular CFST columns the composite section ( Pp ):
when the relative slenderness ratio ( λ̄ ) does not exceed 0.5.
Pno = Pp (15)
Npl,Rd
λ̄ = and plastic strength of the section is given by:
Ncr (7)
Pp = As f y +C2 A c fc (16)
where Npl,Rd is the plastic resistance of column, evaluated by using
Eq. (3) and Ncr is Euler critical load. The critical load of column is C2 is equal to 0.95 for circular CFST columns. By adopting this
evaluated as follows: coefficient, AISC 360-10 implies that the steel tube reaches its
 T. Ekmekyapar, B.J.M. AL-Eliwi / Thin-Walled Structures 105 (2016) 220–230 227

Table 2
CFST column experiments collected from literature.

Ref. # of tests L/D D (mm) t (mm) fc (MPa) fy (MPa)

[2] 6 2.10–2.19 114.0–167.0 3.10–5.60 44–60 300

[16] 24 5.16–21.77 114.85–193.7 3.00–3.50 27.2–34.11 345.2–488.2
[11] 27 7.87–22.50 44.45–63.5 1.25–2.00 36.04–51.60 250
[37] 36 3.00–10.00 114.3 3.35–6.00 22.50–105.45 287.33–342.95
[9] 17 2.97–3.09 165.0–219.0 2.72–4.78 34.1–68.7 350
[38] 12 3.17–3.27 159.0–164.0 3.80–6.30 25.93 342–379
[1] 13 2.61–2.63 114.09–115.04 3.75–5.02 24.6–83.9 343–365
[39] 14 4.52–9.13 219.0 7.00 34.09–35.87 272–275
[10] 15 12.48–25.03 159.6–160.3 4.96–5.20 40––106 270–283
[13] 12 3.00 108.0–149.0 2.96–6.47 25.4–77 308–853
[40] 11 32.50–38.50 108.0 4.00 18.11–26.01 348.1
[41] 14 2.01–3.29 111.3–250.0 1.70–9.00 29.41–49.64 248–482.5
[42] 15 3.47–3.52 165.0–190.0 0.86–2.82 41–108 185.7–363.3
[43] 23 6.00–51.48 108.0 4.00 28.99 338.88
Pres. study 18 2.62–7.87 114.3 2.74–5.90 56.20–107.20 235–355
Total 257

yield strength when the concrete core strength is about 0. 95fc . For compared to EC4. In this region, predictions of AISC 360-10 are
square and rectangular composite columns the parameter C2 is also closer to experimental results. Since Euler elastic column
equal to 0. 85. AISC 360-10 considers the confinement effect of behaviour governs the response, for longer columns, these two
circular steel sections by just incorporating C2 coefficient of 0.95, codes give very close results beyond relative slenderness of 2.0.
instead of 0.85, which implies an 11% constant performance in- However, both codes are very conservative in this region, Fig. 12.
crement for circular tubes. It is also crucial to specify the importance of parameters (L/D, D/
For non-compact sections, the nominal compressive capacity is t and ξ ) to be able to understand the mechanics of CFST columns.
calculated as follows: Fig. 13 presents the relationship between L/D ratios and SI values of
columns listed in Table 2. It can be observed in Fig. 13 that L/D ratio
Pp − Py
Pno = Pp− ( λ − λp )2 has a direct impact on column capacity. The relationship is ap-
( λr − λp )2 (17) proximately linear and as the L/D ratio increases capacity of the
column decreases. This means that L/D should be a major para-
where, Py is the yield strength of the composite section, and is
meter in CFST member design. It is also shown in Fig. 13 that SI
given by:
greater than unity can be provided up to a L/D ratio of 20. Con-
Py = As f y +0. 7A c fc (18) sidering the columns which have SI value greater than unity and L/
D ratio greater than 7.0 it was noticed that these columns have
For slender sections, the nominal compressive capacity is for- diverse concrete and steel strengths but maximum D/t ratio of
mulated as follows: 55.3. This conclusion is similar to the conclusion drawn by Gia-
Pno = As fcr +0. 7A c fc (19) koumelis and Lam [1].
It can be also shown that the relative slenderness ratio defined
In Eq. (19) fcr is the critical local buckling stress of the filled in EC4 formulations has the potential to be a good measure for
circular section, and is calculated as follows: column capacity predictions (Fig. 14).
0. 72f y From the relationship between D/t and SI, and confinement
fcr = factor ( ξ ) and SI it can be observed in Figs. 15 and 16, respectively
f y 0.2
(( ) )
D
t Es (20)
that these parameters have no direct impact on column com-
pression behaviour. However, an important conclusion can be
Through these AISC 360-10 equations slender sections are drawn by observing Fig. 15. For columns with D/t ratios greater
limited to developing critical local buckling stress fcr of steel tube than 55.3 and SI values greater than unity, the maximum L/D ratio
and 0.7fc of concrete core. is 5.16.

5. Design Specifications against Experiments 6. Limitations of design specifications

A comparison of the specification prediction performances is Five limitations from the two design specifications (EC4 and
given in this section. Fig. 12 shows the relative slenderness ( λ̄ ) AISC 360-10) are noted and these are presented in Table 3.
versus the ratio of design specification prediction to experimental In this table, r refers radius of gyration of the composite section
result for CFST columns listed in Table 2. It can be seen from this and parameter δ is called as steel contribution ratio, and is cal-
figure that for lower relative slenderness values there is a sig- culated as follows:
nificant difference between predictions. In this region EC4 gen- As f y
erally overpredicts column capacity, whereas AISC 360-10 under- δ =
Npl,Rd (21)
predicts the capacity. Beyond the relative slenderness value of
approximately 0.4, EC4 also gives conservative results. In this re- Npl,Rd is the plastic resistance of composite section which is
gion AISC 360-10 still gives lower predictions compared to EC4. It calculated using Eq. (3). If δ is less than 0.2, EC4 refers the design
is also shown in Fig. 12 that as the relative slenderness increases, procedure of the CFST to Eurocode-2. On the other hand, if δ is
predictions of two codes get closer to each other. Beyond the re- greater than 0.9, EC4 refers the design procedure of the CFST to
lative slenderness of 1.0, AISC 360-10 has greater predictions Eurocode-3.
228 T. Ekmekyapar, B.J.M. AL-Eliwi / Thin-Walled Structures 105 (2016) 220–230

Fig. 12. Relative slenderness versus ratios of EC4 and AISC 360-10 predictions to Fig. 14. Relative slenderness versus strength index of columns.
test results.

Fig. 15. D/t ratio versus strength index of columns.

Fig. 13. L/D ratio versus strength index of columns.

Fig. 17 presents the minimum circular tube thicknesses allowed

by EC4 and AISC 360-10 for S355 European steel. It can be ob-
served from Fig. 17 that AISC 360-10 covers relatively lower
thicknesses. This is a prominent characteristic of AISC 360-10.
Unlike AISC 360-10, EC4 has a strict limitation on the thickness of
the tube to eliminate adverse effects of local buckling. The differ-
ence is remarkable even between compact section limit of AISC
360-10 and EC4 thickness limit. As the diameter of steel tube in-
creases the difference between allowed thicknesses also increases.
Table 4 presents the number of columns from the literature
(among 215 unique specimens) which have properties beyond the
application limits of design specifications. It should be noted that
some specimens violate more than one design specification limit.
However, such an interaction effect is not considered in this sec-
tion. Performance of design specification prediction methods be-
yond the application limits are assessed considering each limit Fig. 16. Confinement factor ( ξ ) versus strength index of columns.
separately.
The ratios of EC4 prediction to experimental result for 30 col- inferred that EC4 predictions are more successful and closer to
umns out of the thickness limit of EC4 range from 0.75 to 1.04 with target test results even for the columns which are out of the tube
an average value of 0.92. It is very important here to note that all thickness limits.
columns in this group have SI value greater than unity. Therefore, Steel contribution ratios ( δ ) of 16 columns are lower than
it can be concluded that minimum thickness limit equation of EC4 0.2 and range from 0.035 to 0.195. For these columns EC4 pre-
should be improved to allow thinner circular tubes in design cal- diction to experimental result ratios range from 0.75 to 1.04 with
culations. On the other hand ratios of AISC 360-10 prediction to an average value of 0.97. All these columns also have SI value
experimental result for 7 non-compact sections range from 0.65 to greater than unity. Thus, EC4 predictions for lower steel con-
0.86 and for 3 slender sections range from 0.63 to 0.71. SI values of tribution ratios are not far away from target test results and lower
these 10 columns are also greater than unity. So it can be deduced limit of steel contribution ratio could be changed to include so-
that AISC 360-10 non-compact and slender column limits also lution of columns with lower steel areas.
should be updated. Comparing the performances of codes it can be For 17 columns which have steel tube yield strength beyond
 T. Ekmekyapar, B.J.M. AL-Eliwi / Thin-Walled Structures 105 (2016) 220–230 229

EC4 limits the ratios of EC4 prediction to experimental result range cover higher strength concrete classes. Among the 215 experi-
from 0.81 to 1.23 with an average value of 1.01. Therefore, it can be mental data 54 columns have concrete strength beyond AISC 360-
deduced that EC4 has also successful predictions for CFST columns 10 limits. The ratios of AISC 360-10 prediction to experimental
which have steel yield strength out of EC4 lower and upper limits. result for these columns range from 0.63 to 1.01 with an average
On the other hand, AISC 360-10 prediction to experimental result value of 0.87. Nevertheless, lower ratios of prediction to experi-
ratios for 7 columns which have steel yield strength beyond the mental results for AISC 360-10 has nothing to do with L/D ratios of
limit of AISC 360-10 range from 0.80 to 0.84. AISC 360-10 pre- columns. Very conservative predictions of AISC 360-10 in this
dictions are still conservative for these columns. group are also belong to short stub columns.
Core concrete strengths of 63 CFST columns are out of the limits Just 2 columns have slenderness values greater than slender-
of EC4. For those columns ratios of EC4 prediction to experimental ness limits of EC4 and AISC 360-10. Ratios of EC4 and AISC 360-10
result range from 0.67 to 1.18 with an average value of 0.97. Lower predictions to experimental results for these columns are very
prediction to experimental result ratios are belong to columns close since Euler elastic buckling governs the behaviour. For both
which have L/D ratios greater than 30. Without very long columns, specifications those ratios are between 0.63 and 0.65. It can be
minimum prediction to experimental result ratio is 0.75 and the clearly concluded that both specifications have very conservative
predictions for these columns.
average value of predictions is 0.99. It can be inferred that espe-
cially upper limit of concrete strength in EC4 can be altered to

Table 3 7. Conclusions
Differences in applicability limits of design specifications.
The results of tests convey important information about the
EC4 AISC-360-10
physical behaviour of CFST columns and present the opportunity
Thickness of tube 235 Es to assess the contribution of steel and concrete properties to col-
t ≥ 90 t ≥ 0.31
fy fy umn axial capacity. In addition to 18 novel tests presented in this
Steel amount 0.2 ≤ δ ≤ 0.9 ≥1% of gross area paper, 239 CFST column test data were also collected from litera-
Steel yield strength (MPa) 235 ≤ fy ≤ 460 ≤525
ture to assess EC4 and AISC 360-10 predictions. The following
Concrete strength (MPa) 20 ≤ fc ≤ 60 21 ≤ fc ≤ 70 conclusions can be drawn:
Column slenderness λ̄ ≤ 2.0 KL/r ≤ 200

 SI of the column decreases as the core concrete strength in-

creases. So, confinement performance is greater for columns
with lower concrete strength.
 Unlike 107 MPa concrete, 56 MPa and 66 MPa concretes have
greater deformation capacity and ductility. Also, the confine-
ment of thicker steel tubes with higher yield strength is better
for 107 MPa concrete. In order to obtain more ductile and
smooth behaviours this type of concrete should be used with
much thicker steel tubes.
 Contribution of 107 MPa concrete to the compression load ca-
pacity was found to be more for columns with thinner steel
tubes.
 Unconservative predictions of EC4 generally were observed for
columns with relative slenderness ratios smaller than 0.4. Be-
yond the relative slenderness value of approximately 0.4, EC4
gives conservative results. However, except for five tests, AISC
360-10 predictions are conservative for all test data.
 As the column slenderness increases predictions of EC4 and
Fig. 17. Differences between EC4 and AISC 360-10 in allowed circular tube AISC 360-10 get closer. Although both codes give conservative
thickness. results beyond a relative slenderness of 1.0, AISC 360-10

Table 4
Number of columns beyond application limits of design specifications.

Thickness Steel Amount Yield Strength Concrete Strength Column Slenderness

Ref. EC4 AISC 360–10 NC AISC 360–10 SL EC4 AISC 360–10 EC4 AISC 360–10 EC4 AISC 360–10 EC4 AISC 360–10

[16] 11 – – – – 3 – – – – –
[37] – – – – – – – 18 18 – –
[9] 2 – – – – – – 3 – – –
[1] – – – – – – – 5 5 – –
[10] – – – – – – – 9 9 – –
[13] – – – – – 7 7 3 3 – –
[40] – – – – – – – 3 3 – –
[41] 2 1 – 1 – 1 – – – – –
[42] 15 6 3 12 – 6 – 10 10 – –
[43] – – – – – 2 2
Pres. study – – – 3 – – – 12 6 – –
Total 30 7 3 16 – 17 7 63 54 2 2

NC: Non-compact, SL: Slender.

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