Experimental and Analytical Study on Local Buckling Behavior of the Concrete-filled Thin-walled Welded Steel Columns

This paper presents an experimental investigation of the concrete filled thin-walled welded steel tubes. Square and rectangular columns are tested with and without the bond between the steel profile and concrete. In order to remove the bond in the latter columns a polyethylene (PE) film is placed inside of the steel profiles. Experimental results are verified via the finite element analysis and compared to the results obtained using the analytical calculation methods. The significance of the steel–concrete bond is evaluated, referring to the differences of the critical loads, ultimate loads and effective cross-sectional areas of the columns with and without the PE film inside and the differences are found to be considerable. It is found that the columns without the film had an up to 47 % higher effective cross-sectional area to full cross-sectional area ratio. The average reduction of the effective cross-sectional area of the column having a poor bond is found to be 12 %. It is also found that the resistance is often overestimated when using the analytical formulas, especially for the columns with the PE film inside.