Concrete filled steel tube stub columns under combined temperature and loading

A finite element analysis (FEA) model was developed to predict the load versus deformation relationships of concrete filled steel tube (CFST) stub columns subjected to a combination of temperature and axial compression. This model was used to simulate a set of CFST stub column experiments under various thermal and mechanical loading conditions, including tests at high temperature, tests on the residual strength of specimens subjected to uniform heating, and tests on specimens exposed to the ISO-834 standard fire without initial loads. Comparisons between the predicted results and the test results show that this model can predict the load versus deformation relationships with reasonable accuracy. The FEA model was then used to investigate the behaviour of CFST stub columns in a complete loading history including initial loading, heating and cooling by examing the cross-sectional stress distribution and confinement stress development at different loading phases. All specimens were loaded to ultimate strength after cooling and the residual stress index was studied with respect to a group of parameters. It can be found that the ultimate strength when considering the mutual actions of temperature and loading was slightly lower than that after exposure to fire without initial load, but the peak strain corresponding to the ultimate strength was increased significantly.