Thermo-mechanical compression tests on steel-reinforced concrete-filled steel tubular stub columns with high performance materials

Abstract

[EN] Cost-effective solutions provided by composite construction are gaining popularity which, in turn, promotes the appearance on the market of new types of composite sections that allow not only to take advantage of the synergy of steel and concrete working together at room temperature, but also to improve their behaviour at high temperatures. When combined with high performance materials, significant load-bearing capacities can be achieved even with reduced cross-sectional dimensions. Steel-reinforced concrete-filled steel tubular (SR-CFST) columns are one of these innovative composite sections, where an open steel profile is embedded into a CFST section. Besides the renowned benefits of these typologies at room temperature, the fire protection offered by the surrounding concrete to the inner steel profile, gives them an enhanced fire performance which delays its loss of mechanical capacity in a fire scenario. The experimental evidence on the fire behaviour of SR-CFST columns is still scarce, particularly when combined with high performance materials. However, it is being much needed for the development of specific design provisions that consider the use of the inner steel profile in CFST columns. In this work, a new experimental program on the thermo-mechanical behaviour of SR-CFST columns is presented to extend the available experimental database. Ten SR-CFST stub columns, with circular and square geometries, combining high strength steel and concrete were tested. It was seen that the circular specimens reached higher failure times than the square columns, with the failure time increasing both when high strength steel was used at the embedded steel profile and high strength concrete was used as infill. Finally, different proposals for the reduction coefficients of high performance materials were assessed in the prediction of the cross-sectional fire resistance of the SR-CFST columns.