Compressive behaviour of steel tubes filled with strain hardening cementitious composites

[EN] This paper presents the compressive behaviour of steel tubes filled with strain hardening cementitious composites (SHCC) through experimental and numerical investigations. The main parameters considered in the experimental study include type (SHCC and normal concrete) and strength (normal and high strength) of the in-fill material, steel tube thickness (2 and 4 mm) and cross-section type (circular and square). To develop the SHCC material, 2% of polyvinyl alcohol fibres by volume were used. The test results indicate that the performance of SHCC-filled steel tubes is generally similar to that of the counterparts filled with normal concrete. A finite element (FE) model was then developed to predict the load–deformation curves of the test specimens. In general, a reasonably good match is obtained between the predicted and measured curves.