Feasibility study on stub and slender veneer‐wrapped steel columns

The paper presents a newly developed steel‐timber composite column, called “STIMBER‐COL”, which is made of an inner hollow section wrapped by several veneer layers glued together. In addition to the well‐known environmental benefits, the potential advantages at mechanical level are thoroughly discussed in consideration of the literature available. In view of the promising experimental results on steel‐timber composite columns reported in recent studies, a foreseen experimental campaign of 5 stub and 3 slender columns is described along with the setup and instrumentation. Special emphasis is given to the manufacturing process which represents a challenging step in this feasibility study. The test results confirm that the veneer layers lead to a significant increase in stiffness and strength. The work is conducted in the frame of an applied research project to support more advanced research and the implementation of the market in the future.