Behavior of circular thin-walled steel tube confined concrete stub columns

This paper presents a combined numerical and theoretical study on the composite action between steel and concrete of circular steel tube confined concrete (STCC) stub columns under axial compressive loading with a full theoretical elasto-plastic model and finite element (FE) model in comparison with experimental results. Based on continuum mechanics, the elasto-plastic model for STCC stub columns was established and the analysis was realized by a FORTRAN program and the three dimensional FE model was developed using ABAQUS. The steel ratio of the circular STCC columns were defined in range of 0.5% to 2% to analyze the composite action between steel tube and concrete, and make a further study on the advantages of the circular STCC columns. By comparing the results using the elasto-plastic methods with the parametric analysis result of FE model, the appropriate friction coefficient between the steel tube and core concrete was defined as 0.4 to 0.6. Based on ultimate balance theory, the formula of ultimate load capacity applying to the circular STCC stub columns was developed.