Front. Archit. Civ. Eng.
China 2008, 2(3): 205–210
DOI 10.1007/s11709-008-0035-5
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Junjie YANG, Hanyong XU, Guojun PENG
Behavior of concrete-filled double skin steel tubular columns
with octagon section under axial compression
E Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag 2008
Abstract Based on some conclusions of two kinds of
concrete-filled double skin steel tube (CFDSST) members
with circular or square sections, a new kind of CFDSST
with octagonal section, where the outer tube has an octa-
gonal section and the inner tube has a circular section, is
proposed in this paper. Behaviors of the CFDSST mem-
bers with octagon section subjected to axial compression
are investigated, and some curves of load-strain of steel
tubes and confined concrete and the bearing capacity of
members are obtained. It is indicated that the bearing
capacity of the columns with octagonal section is larger
than that with square section and is smaller than that with
circular section, and the bearing capacity of members is
related to the ratio of the straight side to the bevelled one.
Based on the proper stress-strain relationship, a couple of
numerical analyses are made using the finite element soft-
ware named ANSYS. Finally, a simplified formula is pro-
posed in the paper, and the numerical results agree well
with the experimental results and the mathematical solu-
tions. The results are valuable for engineers.
Keywords double skin, octagon section, axial compres-
sion, stress-strain relationship, bearing capacity
1 Introduction
Concrete-filled steel tube (CFST) is widely used in civil
engineering structures because of its excellent properties,
such as high load-capacity, outstanding plasticity and
toughness, and ease of construction. CFST structures
have been proven to provide efficient and economical
Translated from China Civil Engineering Journal, 2007, 40(2): 33–38
[译自: 土木工程学报]
Junjie YANG (*), Guojun PENG
College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang University
of Technology, Hangzhou 310014, China
E-mail: yjinjie@163.com
Hanyong XU
Zhejiang College of Construction, Hangzhou 311231, China
applications in industrial structures, subways, high-rise
buildings, arch bridges and others [1]. The status of
CFST members is best when it is only subjected to the
axial compression or with small load eccentricity which
means the loading point is close to the centroid of CFST
members. Thus, when the CFST member has a high slen-
derness ratio or it is subjected to a large eccentricity load,
the load-capacity will be controlled by the bending stiff-
ness and one cannot take advantage of its excellent
strength capacity because of insufficient bending stiffness
of materials near the centroid of the member section. In
addition, the higher self weight increases the cost and
proves to be a big burden to the foundation of the struc-
tures. Therefore, a new kind of CFST member, concrete
filled double skill steel tube (CFDSST), has been intro-
duced and has attracted lots of attention among research-
ers and engineers. CFDSST members are structures where
two steel tubes are put together concentrically, and the
concrete is filled into the space between them. Several
typical sections of concrete-filled double-skin are shown
in Fig. 1.
A lot of research on the mechanical properties of
CFDSST members has been conducted in the recent dec-
ade, especially for the CFDSST columns shown in Figs. 1
(a) and (b), which are defined as CFDSST with the circle
section and square section, respectively. The mechanical
properties of CFDSST short members with the circle sec-
tion subjected to axial compression are investigated in
Refs. [2–5], and the mechanical properties of CFDSST
with circular section which is subjected to axial compres-
sion and eccentricity compression and circular CFDSST
members subjected to axial compression and bending
moment simultaneously can be located in Refs. [6–8].
The mechanical properties of square CFDSST columns
under eccentricity compression are investigated in Ref.
[9]. The aforementioned research has built a foundation
for further investigation on the mechanical properties and
design theories of CFDSST members.
However, in reality, considering the large consumption
of steel in the connections of CFDSST columns to the
girders, which has the direct influence on the economical
206 Junjie YANG, et al.

Fig. 1 Typical sections of concrete-filled double-skin steel tubes

efficiency, and the apparent strain concentration in the Table 1 Parameters of experiment specimens
right-angle point of the outer steel tube of square
specimen Aso/ Ac/mm2 Asi/mm2 Aso1/Aso2 fyo/MPa fyi/MPa fck/MPa
CFDSST columns, especially being subjected to the No. mm2
dynamic loading, the mechanical properties of CFDSST
1 2016 23203 810 0.130 300 325 37
short columns with octagon section (see Fig. 2) which is 2 2132 24849 989 0.195 300 260 37
subjected to the axial compression are investigated in this 3 2347 33703 989 0.315 300 260 37
paper. 4 2576 42302 1046 0.449 300 365 37
Note: Aso is area of outer steel tube; Ac is area of core concrete; Asi is area
of inner steel tube; fyo is yielding strength of outer steel tube; fyi is yielding
strength of inner steel tube; fck is compression strength of concrete; Aso1
is area of hypotenuse of outer steel tube; Aso2 is area of vertical edge of
outer steel tube.

Table 2 Characteristics value and load-capacity of experiment

specimens

specimen No. an(1022) a(1022) Q Cso1/Cso2 Ne/kN

Fig. 2 Typical section of concrete-filled double skin steel
with octagon section 1 6.852 8.689 0.484 0.137 1790
2 6.271 8.852 0.548 0.201 1904
3 5.475 6.964 0.495 0.320 2580
The research on the CFDSST columns with octagon
4 4.907 6.091 0.452 0.445 3000
section has not been conducted in previous literature until
now. Based on some theoretical and experimental invest- Note: an is nominal steel rate, an 5 Aso/Ace; a is real steel rate, a 5 Aso/Ac;
Q is hollow rate, which is ratio of outer perimeter of the inner steel tube to
igation, the mechanical properties and the calculation
two relative distance of two vertical edges; Ne is axial compression capa-
method of CFDSST short columns with octagon section city obtained in the test; Cso1 is hypotenuse perimeter of the outer steel
are discussed in the paper, and hope it can shed light on tube; Cso2 is vertical perimeter of the outer steel tube.
related engineering practice.
The octagonal tube in the experiment is made of two
steel plates, which can be rolled industrialized directly in
2 Experimental the steelworks. At the welding point of the steel plates, the
welding line is designed as butt-weld according to the Steel
Considering the height-width ratio and analogy based on Structures Design Specification for the superior strength
the width of girders, the real dimensions of the specimens of all welding to that of steel in members. The inner cir-
are scaled down to a 5 150 mm and t 5 3 mm, with the cular steel tube is adopted with the finished welding steel
same thickness of the inner and outer steel tubes. Four tube.
specimens which are subjected to axial compression are The placing of concrete is the same as that in Ref. [9],
tested. Due to the restriction to the hollow rate [6,9], to and the batching is according to mwater : mcement :
maximize the hollow rate of sections (y 5 Di/(a + 2b 2 2t)) msand : mgravel 5 0.5 : 1 : 1.85 : 3.43, with 1% of cement
to obtain the maximum bending stiffness under the con- dosage of Naphthalene series slushing agent. The concrete
dition of members having the same section area, the hol- is cured under normal condition. The strength of 28-day
low rate is set to 0.5 in the experiments, and b and Di can concrete fcu is 55.1 MPa, which is obtained by the con-
be defined with the available nominal steel rate [6,9]. For crete cube test with a dimension of 15 cm 6 15 cm 6
the length l of the specimen, 3 (l/(a + 2b)) is finalized based 15 cm.
on the related experience in Ref. [10]. The parameters of The experiment is conducted in the Structure Test
the specimen are listed in Tables 1 and 2. Center of Zhejiang University of Technology. To obtain