Journal of Constructional Steel Research 170 (2020) 106136

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Constructional Steel Research

Axial-moment interaction of high strength concrete encased

steel composite columns: Design recommendation
Binglin Lai, J.Y. Richard Liew ⁎
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore, E1A-07-03, 1 Engineering Drive 2, 117576, Singapore

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper investigates the axial force-moment (N-M) interaction behaviour of high strength concrete encased
Received 27 February 2020 steel (CES) composite columns. A numerical method is developed to simulate the nonlinear inelastic behaviour
Received in revised form 20 April 2020 of CES composite beam-columns, which includes concrete cover spalling, concrete confinement effect, buckling
Accepted 30 April 2020
of longitudinal reinforcing bars, and stain-hardening of the encased steel section. The numerical model is imple-
Available online xxxx
mented in a self-developed computer program to generate the load-deflection response, moment-curvature re-
Keywords:
lation, as well as the N-M strength interaction diagrams. The accuracy of the proposed analysis method is
Axial force-moment interaction validated by comparison with the experimental results report in the companion paper and the test data available
Concrete encased in literatures. To further understand the resistance of CES columns consisting of high strength concrete and high
Composite columns strength steel, parametric study is performed to evaluate the effect of concrete compressive strength, steel yield
High strength concrete strength, load eccentricity, as well as steel area ratio. Finally, a simplified method is proposed to construct the N-
High strength steel M strength interaction curve of CES composite columns. The proposed method can be used to design CES beam
Nonlinear inelastic behaviour columns for concrete grade up to C100 and steel grade up to S960.
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Concrete Encased Steel (CES) composite columns have attracted
substantial research attentions. Experimental work has been carried
out to investigate the axial performance [1–3], seismic performance
[4–6], bond slippage performance [7,8] and the behaviour under axial
force and single-curvature bending moment [9–11]. Aside from experi-
mental work, a considerable volume of numerical investigations has
also been conducted using finite element analysis [12,13] and fiber ele-
ment analysis [14,15].
Ellobody et al. [12,13] employed ABAQUS software package to inves-
tigate the behaviour of CES columns under concentrically and eccentri-
cally compression. In the modelling of concrete component, the
confinement effect was taken into account by dividing it into highly
confined, partially confined and unconfined region, and assigning re-
spective constitutive relations in the finite element model. Good agree-
ment was achieved between numerical and experimental results in
terms of both failure mode and load-carrying capacity. Since all the
test data reported in [12,13] only covered concrete compressive
strength within 13.7 to 35.1 MPa, and yield strength of the steel section
between 232 and 380 MPa, it remains unknown whether the model
works for high strength CES columns. In addition, as the purely-
⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: ceeljy@nus.edu.sg (J.Y.R. Liew).
compressed high strength concrete columns may suffer from premature
cover spalling due to the different lateral expansion between concrete
cover and core concrete [3,16], special attention should be paid in the
modelling of concrete core-cover interface. Current research work
indicted that the steel fiber reinforced concrete or engineered cementi-
tious composite (ECC) materials may be used to mitigate or prevent
concrete cover spalling [49], but these materials require more stringent
casting sequence and quality control on top of higher cost of such
materials.
Foster et al. [16] set a lower stiffness to the concrete cover element
once the predefined threshold tensile strain was reached, and it was
found that the premature cover spalling occurs when the tensile stress
at the core-cover interface exceeded 1/4 of the uniaxial tensile resis-
tance at compression force corresponding to 0.88 times in-situ com-
pressive strength [16]. Another strategy to incorporate premature
spalling in finite element analysis is proposed by Piscesa et al. [17].
This strategy quantified this special issue at constitutive level and
the model was developed under the plasticity-fracture framework.
The proposed cover spalling properties were implemented in a self-
developed in-house program (3D-NLFEA) [17], which predicts well
not only the first and second peak load, but also the softening
behaviour.
As discussed above, finite element analysis requires massive compu-
tational effort due to the potential convergence issues and the sophisti-
cated modelling at core-cover interface. As an alternative solution, fiber
element method (also termed as “Strip Element Method” [18]) is more

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcsr.2020.106136
0143-974X/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
2 B. Lai, J.Y.R. Liew / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 170 (2020) 106136
programmable and able to simulate the overall behaviour of composite
columns with sufficient accuracy [19,20]. In the fiber element approach,
the composite section is discretized as numerous fiber elements and
assigned with different material properties [10,11,14,15,19–24]. Liang
et al. [19,20] numerically studied the fundamental behaviour of eccen-
trically loaded Concrete Filled Steel Tubular (CFST) beam-columns. In
the numerical model, the local buckling of steel tube and concrete con-
finement effect is incorporated, and the influences of parameters inclu-
sive of concrete compressive strength, steel yield strength, slenderness
ratio, and width to thickness ratio were discussed in detail. CES column
behaviour were numerically investigated by El et al. [14,15] and Kim
et al. [10,11]. According to El et al. [15], the steel flange can be consid-
ered as a cantilever beam that deflect outward freely, so that the bend-
ing moment generated at the intersection of steel flange and web can be
computed by assuming the attainment of yield strength. Applying the
model developed by Mander et al. [25], the confinement effect induced
by steel section can be computed accordingly. Kim et al. [11] extended
this model to high strength CES columns and proposed a formulae of
equivalent ultimate strain, εcue, to account for the improvement of con-
crete deformation capacity offered by confinement effect. It appears
that concrete cover was included in deriving “εcue”, which may conflict
with the cover spalling phenomenon, since concrete cover would not
resist load after spalling off from the specimen. In addition, most of
the tests reported by Kim et al. [10,11] only covered compression load
Fig. 1. Test setup and specimen configurations: (a). Concentric compression; (b). Eccentric compression; (c) Specimen configuration; (d). Four-point bending.
with large eccentricity. Although the proposed method can predict the
test results well, it may not be applicable for specimens loaded with
small eccentricity or concentric compression, which may exhibit more
brittle damage patterns.
To fill the research gap, a numerical model capable of representing
the characteristics of high strength CES columns is required. A nonlinear
fiber element analysis is employed in this paper, and effects of concrete
cover spalling, reinforcing bar buckling, concrete confinement, as well
as strain-hardening of steel section are considered in the model. Firstly,
the experimental program is briefly reviewed and followed by the intro-
duction of numerical procedure. After the calibration of numerical
model with the benchmark experiments, parametric study is carried
out to investigate the effect of concrete compressive strength, steel sec-
tion yield strength, load eccentricity ratio, and steel area ratio on the ca-
pacity of CES columns. Finally, a simplified design method is developed
to construct the N-M curve of CES columns with high strength materials.
2. Summary of test results
The test results and phenomenon were discussed in detail in the
companion paper [44]. The test setup and specimen configurations are
shown in Fig. 1. In each series, one concentric compression test, two ec-
centric compression tests (e = 20/50 mm), and one four-point bending
test were conducted. All specimens have the same cross-section
 B. Lai, J.Y.R. Liew / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 170 (2020) 106136 3

dimension, and fabricated by C90 concrete and S500 steel section. For
identification, each specimen is designated a string of characters and
numbers. For example, E20-SF0.5 refers to the specimens subjected to
20 mm eccentric compression load and having 0.5% steel fiber.
Fig. 2 shows the load-displacement responses of the test specimens
and their corresponding behaviour at different stages of loading. For the
eccentrically loaded specimens, the reinforcing bars at the compression
side reached the yield strain before the first peak load, followed by con-
crete cover spalling (in plain concrete specimens) or concrete longitudi-
nal cracking (in fiber-reinforced specimens). In the post-peak stage,
yielding occurred at the compression flange of the steel section and at
the tensioned reinforcing bars. For the specimens under four-point
bending, the rebar and steel flange at tension side yielded at early
stage, but the steel flange at compression side only yielded after the
attainment of peak load. Since compact S500 steel section was used in
the test, all specimens exhibited excellent residual strength and post-
peak ductility.
The deflections of eccentrically loaded specimens at different load-
ing stages are plotted in Fig. 3. It can be seen that the deflection shape
along the specimen height could be approximated as half-sine wave.
When the axial force increased from 0.8 Nu to 1.0 Nu, the specimens
deflected more significantly than the previous loading stages, indicating
that when approaching the maximum load, the flexural stiffness de-
creased more rapidly due to material nonlinearities.
As shown in Fig. 4, the strain distribution of concrete is almost line-
arly varied along the section, satisfying the hypothesis of plane-section
remains plain after deformation. The specimens subject to 20 mm and
50 mm load eccentricity experienced typical compression failure. As
indicated from Figs. 4(a) & (b), the mid-height section of specimen
E20-SF0 was completely under compression before the failure, with
the neutral axis locating outside the composite section. Very small ten-
sile strain was observed for Specimen E50-SF0 when the maximum load
was reached. For the beam specimen B-SF0, tensile strain generated fast
and the neutral axis position also shifted upward rapidly. The strain

Fig. 2. Load-deflection curves and response behaviour of high strength CES specimens.
4 B. Lai, J.Y.R. Liew / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 170 (2020) 106136

gauges attached at the bottom side were damaged early due to widen-
ing of tensile cracks, so they are not presented in Fig. 4(c).
3. Numerical model
3.1. Fiber element method
Nonlinear fiber element analysis is conducted by discretizing the
section into numerous fiber elements. As sketched in Fig. 5 (a), the
CES composite section consists of unconfined concrete, confined
concrete, steel section and reinforcing bars. Each material component
contains numerous fiber elements assigned with respective material
properties. The stress of each element can be derived according to the
predefined stress-strain relation discussed below, and the internal
force generated by the composite section can be computed as the stress
resultant of fiber elements. Several hypotheses are commonly made:
(1). Plane section remains plane after deformation, so that strain distri-
bution is linear variable along the section; (2) Perfect bond between
steel and concrete; (3) The tensile resistance of concrete is neglected
and shear deformation is also neglected.

Fig. 3. Deflection of specimens at different loading stages: (a) Eccentrically loaded specimens; (b) Beam specimens.
 B. Lai, J.Y.R. Liew / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 170 (2020) 106136 5

Fig. 4. Concrete strain distribution along the section height of mid-height (span) section.

From the experimental measurements reported in Fig. 3, the deflec-
tion along the column height can be assumed to shape as a half-sine
wave as depicted in Fig. 5(b), and the maximum deflection occurs at
the mid-height section. The curvature of section can be approximately
taken as the second-order derivative of deflection [19], so the curvature
at mid-height section can be written as:
π2
ϕ¼δ 2
L knowledge of the authors, the steel-induced confinement effect under
If the curvature and neutral axis position are determined, the inter-
nal axial force generated on the composite section can be computed,
and the load-deflection response can also obtained once the force equi-
librium is satisfied. The detailed algorithm is demonstrated in Fig. 6. In
view of the fine mesh size and iterations involved in calculation, the al-
gorithm is implemented in a self-developed computer program using
MATLAB.
3.2. Constitutive models of materials
enclosed by the stirrups. The confinement model proposed by Razvi
and Saatcioglu [26] is adopted in analysis, which is applicable for con-
crete strength ranging from 30 to 130 MPa, and also covers both con-
centric and eccentric compression. However, there is still an argument
with regard to the concrete confinement effect offered by steel section
[27,28]. Despite the availability of a few steel-induced confinement
models [27,28], all of these are derived from pure compression scenario,
and the concrete grade is also limited to C70 [27]. Moreover, to the best
ð1Þ
eccentric compression has not been fully investigated by experiment.
Therefore, the steel induced confinement is ignored for conservative
reason, and only the stirrup-induced confinement effect is incorporated
in the numerical analysis.
According to Razvi and Saatcioglu [26], the confined concrete has a
bilinear descending branch that remains constant when the axial strain
exceeds ε20. As listed in Eqs. (2)–(8), both the strain and strength en-
hancement can be formulated as functions of effective confining pres-
sure fle. For the unconfined concrete, the stress-strain relation can be
predicted by assuming the confining pressure as 0.

f cc ¼ f co þ k1 f le ð2Þ
3.2.1. Concrete materials
As sketched in Fig. 5 (a), the concrete is divided into unconfined re- k1 ¼ 6:7ð f le Þ
−0:17
ð3Þ
gion (concrete cover) outside the stirrups and the confined region

Fig. 5. Discretization of CES composite section and assumed deflection shape of a pin-pin ended column.
6 B. Lai, J.Y.R. Liew / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 170 (2020) 106136

2
ε 085 ¼ ε01 þ 0:0018k3 ð8Þ

where k3 = 40/fco ≤ 1.0. Other parameters and the complete stress-

strain relation can be found in [26].
Different from core concrete bounded by stirrups, the concrete
cover delaminated suddenly from the specimens when reaching
the first peak load, and did not contribute to the post-peak resis-
tance. Therefore, the full range of stress-strain relation of uncon-
fined concrete should not be input in the numerical analysis. As
shown in Fig. 7 (a), for high strength concrete, the cover spalling
results in a sudden drop of compressive stress to zero. Although
the spalling strain of concrete differs widely depending on concrete
grade and loading conditions, previous research indicates a trend
that high strength columns tested concentrically or at small eccen-
tricity tend to experience premature cover spalling [30], in which
case the concrete cover may start to spall off when the strain
reaches round 0.0025 [31] and is unable to achieve its compressive
strength. For normal strength concrete, the concrete cover may
continue to resist the axial force after reaching peak stress [31,32].
In the experimental program presented in the companion paper
[44], the concrete strain of all the eccentrically loaded specimens
exceeded the commonly adopted crushing strain (0.003) when
cover spalling occurred, implying that the compressive strength is
achieved [48]. As a lower bound of the measurement results, 0.003
is selected as the cover spalling strain (εsp) in the numerical analysis,
which is also close to the peak stain of concrete calculated using
Eq. (7). For the concrete cover parallel to the bending direction, the
spalling issue is also considered. As illustrated in the Fig. 7 (b), longi-
tudinal cracks were also observed on the concrete surface in the
plane parallel to the bending direction.

3.2.2. Reinforcing bars and steel section

The typical trilinear curve proposed by Zubydan & ElSabbagh
[33] is used to model longitudinal reinforcing bars made of mild
steel. As sketched in Fig. 8 (a), the strain at the onset of strain-
hardening (ε hl ) is assumed to be 10 times yield strain (εyl ), and
the ultimate strain equals to 0.15. The local buckling of reinforcing
bars at compression side is assumed to initiate at the occurrence
of concrete cover spalling [24,34]. As listed in Eqs. (9) & (10),
the post-buckling relation proposed by Morino et al. [35] is
adopted.
2sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 3
Fig. 6. Flowchart to generate load-deflection curve using fiber element analysis.  2
3πsX 3πsX
σl ¼ 4 þ 1− 5 f yl ð9Þ
8dl 8dl

f le ¼ k2 f l ð4Þ qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
X¼ 1−½1−ðε l −εbl Þ2 ð10Þ
Pq
i¼1 ðAs f s sinα Þi
fl ¼ ð5Þ where dl is the diameter of longitudinal reinforcing bars. εbl is the buck-
sbc
ling strain equalling to concrete spalling strain εsp.
where fcc, fco refer to the confined and unconfined concrete strength; s High strength steel always presents a rounded stress-strain relation
and bc refers to stirrup spacing and concrete core dimension; k1 and k2 with no marked yield plateau [29], so the model proposed by Rasmus-
are strength enhancement coefficient and confinement effectiveness sen [36] is adopted. It should be noted that the buckling of steel section
coefficient, respectively; fs is the actual stress of lateral reinforcing bars in CES columns is not considered in this paper as it occurs at very large
when fcc is achieved. fs is calculated as follow: deformation, which may not have much practical significance unless it
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi! is used in seismic region. The stress-strain formulas are represented
3 k 2 ρc by Eqs. (11) & (12).
f s ¼ Es 0:0025 þ 0:04 ≤ f yt ð6Þ
f co !n
σ σ
ε¼ þ 0:002 if σ ≤ f ys ð11Þ
where ρc is volumetric ratio of stirrups. The strains at peak stress (ε01) Es f ys
and 85% peak stress in the post-peak branch (ε085) of unconfined con-
!m
crete are estimated below. It should be noted the Eq. (7) follows the σ −f ys σ− f ys
model proposed by Légeron & Paultre [29], as it matches the material ε¼ þ εus þ εys if f ys b σ ≤ f us ð12Þ
E0:2 f us −f ys
test result most accurately.
0:4
ε 01 ¼ 0:0005ð f co Þ ð7Þ
 B. Lai, J.Y.R. Liew / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 170 (2020) 106136 7

Fig. 7. Constitutive mode of concrete materials.

where E0.2 is the tangent modulus at 0.2% proof stress. n and m are coef-
ficients controlling the shape of stress-strain curve. The detailed equa-
tions can be found in [36].
3.3. Calibration of numerical model
3.3.1. Load-deformation response
Since the constitutive law of fiber-reinforced concrete varies widely
depending on the specific fiber type, and it appears that the small
straight fiber does not work well when the volume content reaches
1.0%, therefore only the plain concrete specimens is investigated in the
numerical analysis. Assigning the material properties to respective
fiber elements, the full range load-deflection curve can be generated fol-
lowing the algorithm in Fig. 6. Mesh sensitivity study indicates that 0.5
mm element size is optimal to achieve the desired accuracy and compu-
tational time. Reducing the mesh size does not improve the accuracy of
prediction but require more computation effort.
To evaluate the effect of concrete cover spalling and concrete
confinement, several numerical results of E50-SF0 are comparatively
plotted in Fig. 9 (a). As demonstrated in Fig. 9 (a), the black dash line
gives the best representation of the experimental result. Without
consideration of concrete confinement effect, the post-peak resis-
tance is much lower than the experimental result. On the other
hand, ignoring concrete cover spalling would result in overestima-
tion of the load carrying capacity. To properly simulate the sudden
unloading after reaching the first peak load and the post-peak be-
haviour, both the cover spalling and confinement effect should be
incorporated.
The contribution of each material component in the load-deflection
curve is extracted from the numerical analysis and plotted in Fig. 9 (b). It
can be seen that at the first peak load, the axial force carried by concrete
cover and reinforcing bars reaches the maximum while for the core con-
crete and steel section still keeps increasing. After the cover spalling, the
post-peak resistance is mainly provided by the steel section and the core
concrete.

Fig. 8. Constitutive model of steel section and reinforcing bars.

8 B. Lai, J.Y.R. Liew / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 170 (2020) 106136

8000 8000
CES column
Concrete cover
Core concrete
6000 6000 Steel section
Reinforcing bars

Load (kN)
Load (kN)

4000
4000 Cover spalling

Experimental result 2000

2000 No spalling+unconfined
No spalling+confined
Spalling+unconfined
Spalling+confined 0
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Lateral deflection (mm) Lateral deflection (mm)

(a) (b) Isolate Each component

Fig. 9. Calibration of numerical model and isolation of material component contribution. (Take E50-SF0 as an example).

Fig. 10. Comparison between numerical results and experimental results.

 B. Lai, J.Y.R. Liew / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 170 (2020) 106136 9

Table 1
Specimen details in Refs. [10, 11].

Ref Specimen Cross section B × D (mm) Steel section b × h × tf × tw (mm) fc (MPa) fys (MPa) fyl (MPa) s (mm) Lo (mm) e (mm) N1st (kN) Nmax (kN)

[10] C1 260 × 260 100 × 150 × 17.6 × 17.6 94 913 525 50 2620 120 2120 2203
C2 260 × 260 100 × 150 × 17.6 × 17.6 94 913 525 50 2620 60 3752 3752
C3 260 × 260 100 × 150 × 17.6 × 17.6 94 913 525 130 2620 120 2020 2020
C4 260 × 260 100 × 150 × 17.6 × 17.6 94 913 525 50 2620 120 2072 2211
[11] C10 260 × 260 150 × 150 × 15 × 15 104 812 512 65 2620 120 2023 2329
C11 260 × 260 150 × 150 × 15 × 15 104 812 512 65 3520 120 1986 2013

Where s refers to stirrup spacing. Lo is effective length and e is load eccentricity. N1st and Nmax refer to the first peak load and maximum load obtained from test.

As plotted in Fig. 10, good agreement is achieved between numerical
results and experimental results for other test specimens. For the beam
specimens, using spalling strain 3000 με seems to underestimate the
moment-carrying capacity. It should be noted that concrete under
bending exhibits better deformability than when it is pure compression,
and the ultimate compressive strain is found to be higher [37,38]. As dis-
covered by Hadhood et al. [38], the ultimate strain of beams generally
far exceeds the ultimate strain (spalling strain) of concentrically loaded
members. To reflect this issue in the moment-curvature relation, a sen-
sitively study is presented in Fig. 10 (d). Increasing the spalling strain

Fig. 11. Comparison between numerical results and experimental results reported by Kim et al. [10,11].
10 B. Lai, J.Y.R. Liew / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 170 (2020) 106136

Table 2
Comparison of load-carrying capacity between numerical and experimental results.

Specimens Predicted first peak load Predicted maximum load

Axial load Bending moment NNum/Ntest NNum/Ntest Axial load Flexural moment NNum/Ntest NNum/Ntest

N1st (kN) M1st (kNm) (%) (%) NMax (kN) MMax (kNm) (%) (%)

Authors E20-SF0 8026 183 105.7 103.6 8026 183 105.7 103.6
E50-SF0 6582 355 98.6 96.7 6582 355 98.6 96.7
B-SF0 – 473 – 96.8 – 473 – 96.8
Kim et al. [10] C1 1980 269 93.4 93.4 2244 376 101.9 112.0
C2 3484 251 92.8 95.0 3484 251 92.8 95.0
C3 1951 265 96.6 98.0 1951 265 96.6 98.0
C4 1970 268 95.1 95.3 2225 373 100.6 114.4
Kim et al. [11] C10 2211 301 109.3 109.1 2263 361 97.2 98.5
C11 2033 308 102.4 107.0 2050 390 101.9 107.2
Mean 99.2 99.4 99.4 102.5

Fig. 12. Comparison of load-deflection curves under different load eccentricities.

Fig. 13. Evaluation of N-M curve obtained from numerical analysis and design code EN 1994-1-1 and AISC 360–16.
 B. Lai, J.Y.R. Liew / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 170 (2020) 106136 11

Table 3
Variation range of parameters investigated in the parametric study.

Parameters Variation range

Concrete compressive 60, 70, 80, 90,100

strength (MPa)
Steel yield strength 355, 550, 690, 960
(MPa)
Load eccentricity ratio 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5
(e/D)
Slenderness ratio (λ) 1000 mm (0.16), 2000 mm (0.33), 3000 mm (0.49),
4000 mm (0.66), 5000 mm (0.82)
Fig. 14. Analysis of stress distribution along steel section at the first peak load for
Steel area ratio Section A (9.82%), Section B (7.27%), Section C (4.71%)
specimens with different load eccentricity, e.

from 3000 με to 4000 με leads to 5.8% enhancement of moment capacity,

investigation of the ultimate resistance of CES columns, thus the failure
and 3500 με is close to the actual spalling measured in this experimental
criterion associated with concrete cover spalling is considered to predict
study. Nevertheless, for consistency and conservative purpose, the
the ultimate resistance of the composite section.
spalling strain is constantly assumed as 3000 με in the subsequent
Since the experiments only covers beam-column specimens subject
analysis.
to two load eccentricities, the fiber element model can be used to gen-
To further verify the accuracy of numerical model, the test results re-
erate load-deflection curves for CES columns with a wider range of
ported by Kim et al. [10,11] is also used for calibration. As tabulated in
load eccentricities to construct the N-M curve. It is evident from
Table 1, the beam-column specimens tested by Kim et al., [10,11] had
Fig. 12 that specimens under large load eccentricity tend to exhibit bet-
higher strength concrete of 94 MPa and 104 MPa, and high strength
ter ductility, and the second peak load is more likely to be higher than
steel of 913 MPa and 812 MPa. Two load eccentricity ratios (0.23 and
the first one. The first peak load and corresponding moment will be
0.46) were selected, which were higher than the small eccentricities
plotted with the N-M curve in Fig. 13 to evaluate the design code predic-
in the authors' experimental program. Similarly, obvious concrete
tion and fiber element approach.
cover spalling phenomenon was observed in the tests by Kim et al.
The detailed procedure of generating N-M curve is introduced by Lai
[10,11].
et al. [18]. As plotted in Fig. 13, the N-M curve generated by fiber ele-
Only the load-compressive strain curves of specimen C1, C10 and
ment method gives the best representation of cross-section capacity.
C11 were reported in [10,11]. As compared in Fig. 11, the numerical re-
Only the capacity of E20-SF0 is overestimated, which may be attributed
sults can accurately simulate the experimental results in terms of initial
to some variation of concrete strength in this test specimen, since the
stiffness, first peak load, second peak load, residual strength, as well as
average concrete strength is used for simulation [20]. In addition, as
deformation.
pointed out by El et al. [14], 0.85fc, instead of 1.0 fc should be used in
The detailed comparison is given in Table 2. It can be seen that the
the analysis to account for the size effect and the variation of concrete
numerical model can predict the load-carrying capacity of high strength
strength along the column height due to uneven compaction. However,
CES columns with good accuracy. The ratio of numerical to experimen-
in the numerical simulation, using 0.85fc will completely change the
tal result at first peak load is 99.2% and 99.4% for axial force and bending
constitutive law, since it reduces the Young's modulus, peak strain,
moment, respectively, and at maximum load it is 99.4% and 102.5%.
peak stress, and other relevant parameters of concrete. Nevertheless,
the N-M curve using 0.85fc is also plotted in Fig. 13 for comparative pur-
3.3.2. Axial force-bending moment diagram pose. It can be observed that using 0.85fc underestimates the test results
Aside from load-deformation response, fiber element method is also in this experimental program [44] and in Ref. [10].
capable of calculating the cross sectional resistance by defining suitable Among all the N-M curves in Fig. 13, EN 1994-1-1 [39] seems to be
failure criterion [18]. For RC columns or CES columns, concrete crushing most un-conservative. To explain this, the stress distributions over
or cover spalling is a typically failure mode that governs the ultimate steel section at the first peak load are extracted from the numerical anal-
resistance. In seismic design, the N-M interaction curve corresponding ysis. As graphically illustrated in Fig. 14, the steel section remains in
to residual strength after failure can also be constructed by modelling elastic state at 20 mm and 50 mm load eccentricity. For the pure bend-
the concrete confinement effect [24]. This paper focuses on the ing scenario, a small portion of the steel section reaches the yield

Fig. 15. Cross-section dimensions used in parametric study.

12 B. Lai, J.Y.R. Liew / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 170 (2020) 106136

7000 7000
6000 C60 C60 C60
C80 6000 C80 6000 C80
C100 C100 C100
5000
5000 5000
Load (kN)

Load (kN)
Load (kN)
4000
4000 4000

3000
3000 3000

Section A Section A
2000 Section A 2000 2000
fys=550MPa fys=690MPa
fys=355MPa
L=2000mm L=2000mm
1000 L=2000mm 1000
e=0.2D
1000 e=0.2D
e=0.2D
0 0 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Deflection (mm) Deflection (mm) Deflection (mm)

(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 16. Effect of concrete compressive strength on the load-deflection curve.

6000 6000 7000

S355 S355 S355
S550 S550 6000 S550
5000 S690 5000 S690 S690
5000
4000 4000

Load (kN)
Load (kN)

Load (kN)

4000
3000 3000
3000
2000 Section A 2000 Section A Section A
fc=60MPa 2000
fc=80MPa fc=100MPa
1000
L=2000mm 1000 L=2000mm L=2000mm
e=0.2D e=0.2D 1000
e=0.2D
0 0 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Deflection (mm) Deflection (mm) Deflection (mm)

(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 17. Effect of steel yield strength on the load-deflection curve.

strength at the tension side. Therefore, when high strength steel section 4. Parametric study
is used, the stress development may be limited because of concrete
crushing, and the full plastic resistance of the steel section cannot be The fiber element approach has been shown to be capable of simu-
achieved. A detailed discussion on this aspect will be presented later. lating the nonlinear inelastic behaviour of high strength CES columns

9000
Section A e=0.1D e=0.1D
6000
fc=60MPa e=0.2D e=0.2D
e=0.3D 7500 e=0.3D
fys=355MPa
5000 e=0.4D e=0.4D
L=2000mm
e=0.5D e=0.5D
6000
Load (kN)

Load (kN)

4000

4500
3000

3000
2000

1000 1500

0 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 0 100 200 300 400 500
Deflection (mm) Moment (kN m)

(a) (b)
Fig. 18. Effect of load eccentricity on the load-deflection curve.
 B. Lai, J.Y.R. Liew / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 170 (2020) 106136 13

5000 by incorporating the concrete cover spalling and concrete confinement

Section A
effects. To provide a deeper insight into the behaviour CES columns with
Section B
high strength materials, parametric study is carried out by varying con-
4000
Section C
crete compressive strength, steel yield strength, load eccentricity, col-
umns slenderness, and steel area ratio. Fig. 15 shows the concrete
encased steel section with the overall dimension B x D as 300 × 300
Load (kN)

3000 mm. Longitudinal and transverse rebars are set to be 13 mm and 10

mm in diameter. The centroid of rebar to concrete surface is 30 mm
and the stirrup spacing is 90 mm. The steel section has three different
2000 sizes, giving different concrete depth ac surrounding steel section,
which is defined as the distance between concrete surface and steel sec-
fc=60MPa
tion surface as illustrated in Fig. 15 (c). The yield strength of longitudinal
fys=355MPa
reinforcing bars is set as 500 MPa. The steel section size is written in the
1000 L=2000mm
form of b x h x tf x tw as given in Fig. 15.
e=0.2D
The range of each key parameters to be studied is listed in Table 3.
Since existing method in EN 1994-1-1 can conservatively predict the ul-
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 timate strength of CES columns made of normal strength concrete [18],
only high strength concrete encased steel composite columns are inves-
Deflection (mm)
tigated in this study. The maximum concrete grade is limited to C100,
beyond which may not be cost-effectiveness [43]. Since the yield
Fig. 19. Effect of steel area ratio on the load-deflection curve.
strength of steel section reported in literatures reaches as high as 913

Fig. 20. Effect of concrete compressive strength on the N-M curve.

14 B. Lai, J.Y.R. Liew / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 170 (2020) 106136
MPa [10], the maximum steel grade is set to be S960 in parametric
study. The load eccentricity ratio ranges from 0.1 to 0.5, and the effective
buckling length of column varies from 1000 mm to 5000 mm, with the
corresponding non-dimensional slenderness ratio (λ) ranges from 0.16
to 0.82 [39]. The three steel section sizes result in steel area ratio of
9.82%, 7.27% and 4.71%, and the concrete depth (ac) of 50 mm, 75 mm,
and 100 mm, respectively. For comparison, the reference specimen is
defined to have C60 concrete, S355 steel, 0.2 load eccentricity ratio,
2000 mm column height, and steel Section A.
Since normal strength steel and high strength steel differ consider-
ably in the strain-hardening behaviour, the elastic-perfectly plastic
stress-strain model is adopted, for simplicity, in the parametric study.
4.1. Evaluation of load-deflection relation
4.1.1. Effect of concrete compressive strength
As presented in Fig. 16, regardless of steel grade, increasing concrete
compressive strength improves the column flexural stiffness, peak
strength, as well as post-peak behaviour, but the strength decay after
Fig. 21. Effect of steel yield strength on the N-M curve.
the peak load is more pronounced due to the increased brittleness
of high strength concrete. For S355 and S550 steels, only one peak
load is observed, which may be attributed to the ignorance of strain-
hardening effect of steel section and weak confinement effect of con-
crete. In the case of S690 steel, the second peak load is observed and
increases as concrete strength increasing. Fig. 16 (c) shows that the
second peak load tends to be higher than the first one when C60 and
C80 concrete are used. It is believed that lower concrete strength
leads to stronger confinement effect under the same confining configu-
ration [29].
4.1.2. Effect of steel yield strength
Different from concrete, steel materials always possess constant
Young's modulus regardless of steel grade. Consequently, all the speci-
mens exhibit the same stiffness as evident in Fig. 17. By changing the
steel section grade from S355 to S550, both the peak strength and resid-
ual strength increase, but the load-deflection curves of specimens with
S550 and S690 steel almost coincide with each other until the strength
recovery after first peak load. Since the yield strength of S690 is
achieved after cover spalling, it plays a more important role in the
 B. Lai, J.Y.R. Liew / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 170 (2020) 106136 15

post-peak performance. In summary, using high strength steel section
in concrete encased steel composite column may not be beneficial in
term of higher load carrying capacity, but it does improve the post
peak ductility.
4.1.3. Effect of load eccentricity ratio
All the column specimens in the parametric study are bending about
the major axis. As shown in Fig. 18 (a), at 0.1D eccentricity, the speci-
men fails at a very small lateral deflection, followed by a sudden drop
of load. With the increase of load eccentricity, the strength and stiffness
decrease while the deformability and ductility increase. The load-
moment relations under each load eccentricity are plotted with the N-
M curve in Fig. 18 (b). It can be seen that larger load eccentricity results
in lower ultimate load and higher bending moment. Since all the col-
umns are 2000 mm in length, with a low λ of 0.33, the second-order ef-
fect is not obvious as shown in Fig. 18 (b).
4.1.4. Effect of steel area ratio
The steel area ratio is defined as the ratio of steel section area to the
gross area of the composite section. It is an important parameter to
judge whether the composite column behaves more like concrete col-
umns or steel columns. According to AISC 360–16, steel section area
shall comprise at least 1.0% of the entire CES section [40]. As shown in
Fig. 19, all the specimen displayed similar load-deflection response,
but higher steel area ratio results in higher stiffness, higher load-
carrying capacity, as well as better post-peak ductility. The effect of
steel area ratio on the design of CES columns will be discussed in detail
in the following subsection.
4.2. Evaluation of N-M curve
As mentioned before, the cross-sectional N-M curve of CES columns
can be constructed using the fiber element approach. To provide a com-
prehensive assessment of existing design method in EN 1994-1-1 and

Fig. 22. Effect of steel area ratio on the N-M curve.

16 B. Lai, J.Y.R. Liew / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 170 (2020) 106136
Fig. 23. Change of N-M curve shape with different steel contribution ratio.
AISC 360–16, and to develop a new design method if necessary, the ef-
fect of concrete compressive strength, steel yield strength, and steel
area ratio are discussed below.
4.2.1. Effect of concrete compressive strength
As tabulated in Table 3, both the concrete and steel material
have three different grades in the parametric study. Each combination
of material strength and steel area ratio is comparatively plotted in
Fig. 20. It can be seen that regardless of steel grade, increasing concrete
grade from C60 to C100 results in enhanced cross-section capacity. It
is interesting to discover that when S335 steel is used, the axial strength
enhancement is significant while the flexural strength enhan-
cement seems limited, which is consistent with the findings by
Ahmed et al. [21] in CFST columns, but when higher steel grade is
used, the flexural strength enhancement is also significant as indicated
from Fig. 20 (c), (f), (i).
4.2.2. Effect of steel yield strength
Different from the effect of concrete compressive strength, higher
steel yield strength may not have major contribute to the cross-
section capacity. The comparison study in Fig. 21 shows that increasing
Fig. 24. Proposed method to construct N-M interaction curve.
steel grade from S355 to S550 does not really enhance the overall resis-
tance in the region of N-M curve that represents small axial force and
large bending moment, and even no enhancement is observed when
small size steel section is used. It is also observed that the N-M curve
of CES Section with S690 steel section is almost coincide with that
with S550 section, suggesting that the yield strength of S690 is not effec-
tive utilized due to the failure of concrete, which is also demonstrated in
Fig. 17. Although S690 steel section offers excellent post-peak resistance
and ductility to the CES column, it may not be a preferable option when
strength rather than ductility is of priority in design, especially in non-
seismic regions.
4.2.3. Effect of steel area ratio
The effect of steel area ratio on the N-M curve is evident in Fig. 22.
Regardless of concrete and steel grade, increasing the steel area ratio
tends to expand the N-M curve outward with more improvement of
flexural strength instead of axial strength. The shape of N-M curve
also changes accordingly. When small size steel section is used, the
CES columns behave more like RC columns, and the N-M curve comes
with a marked balance point (see Fig. 23) characterized by maximum
bending capacity. However, as the steel area increases, the steel section
contributes more to the column capacity, and the shape of N-M curve is
consequently more close to that of pure steel column with the maxi-
mum moment capacity occurring at pure bending scenario [40]. Similar
discoveries have been reported by Lai et al. [41,42], Choi et al. [45,46],
and Hang & Yang [47] for Concrete Filled Steel Tubes (CFST) columns.
Fig. 25. Plastic stress distribution of CES section at pure bending.
 B. Lai, J.Y.R. Liew / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 170 (2020) 106136 17

1.1 1.1 1.1

fc=60MPa fc=60MPa fc=60MPa
fc=70MPa fc=70MPa fc=70MPa
1.0 1.0 1.0
fc=80MPa fc=80MPa fc=80MPa
fc=90MPa fc=90MPa fc=90MPa
0.9 0.9 0.9

RM (Numerical)
RM (Numerical)

RM (Numerical)
fc=100MPa fc=100MPa fc=100MPa

0.8 0.8 0.8

ac ac ac
0.7 0.7 0.7
h ac/h=0.25 h h a /h=1.0
ac/h=0.5 c
0.6 0.6 0.6

0.5 0.5 0.5

300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
fys (MPa) fys (MPa) fys (MPa)

(a) ac/h=0.25 (b) ac/h=0.5 (c) ac/h=1.0

Fig. 26. Derivation of RM as a function of fc, fys and ac/h.

5. Design recommendation
5.1. General shape of N-M curve
As concluded from the parametric study, the cross-section capacity
of high strength CES column is highly associate with concrete compres-
sive strength and steel area ratio, and it is less affected by the section's
yield strength. Consequently, the shape of N-M curve also varies de-
pending on the specific geometric and material properties. Steel contri-
bution ratio (δ) combines the effects of concrete compressive strength,
steel yield strength, and steel area ratio, so it is selected here for the
evaluation of N-M curve shape. As formulated in Eq. (13), δ is taken as
the ratio of axial resistance of the steel section to the squash load of
the entire composite section [39].
As f ys
δ¼
0:85Ac f c þ As f ys þ Al f yl
The shapes of N-M curves generated in parametric study are sum-
marized in Fig. 23 (a), since all specimens have different cross-
section capacity, only the normalized N-M curve is presented. Nn
and M n refers to the capacity corresponding to pure compression
and pure bending, respectively, which will be discussed in detail in
Section 5.2. As demonstrated in Fig. 23 (a), when the steel contribu-
tion ratio δ increases from 0.16 to 0.45, the N-M curve shrinks in-
ward with less pronounced balance point. When CES column is
reinforced with δ = 0.16, the moment capacity at balance point
even reaches more than 1.4 times of that at pure bending. But
when δ increases to 0.45, the N-M curve comes with no balance
point and behaves like a steel column.
To summarize, the shape of N-M curve is pertinent to the steel con-
tribution ratio δ. When δ is increasing, the N-M curve of CES column is
similar to that of pure steel members, and maximum moment resis-
generate N-M curve similar to RC column and steel column, respectively,
but they cannot provide a unified estimation of the N-M curve shape. To
this end, it is necessary to propose a new method that gives proper rep-
resentation of N-M curve regardless of the steel contribution ratio.
It should be noted that a unified approach has been proposed by the
authors [18] previously to evaluate the N-M curve of CES columns,
which is based on elastic-plastic stress distribution over the steel sec-
tion, and appropriate stress block parameters are used to simplify the
concrete contribution. Due to the irregular geometry of the concrete
net area in CES section, this method needs some computational effort al-
though it predicts the section resistance with good accuracy. In view of
this, a simplified method is proposed herein, which is schematically il-
lustrated in Fig. 24.
The exact N-M curve can be approximated as a bilinear curve A-C-B
in Fig. 24. Point A and B represent the axial compression capacity and
pure bending capacity, while Point C determines the shape of N-M
ð13Þ
curve and moves with the change of steel contribution ratio
[41,42,45,46]. Therefore, the N-M curve equations can be formulated
below. Substituting α = 0.9 and β = 0.2 in Eqs. (14) & (15) results in
the same equation given by AISC 360–16, which is now considered as
a special case of the proposed method.
N N 1−β M
When ≥β þ ¼1 ð14Þ
Nn Nn α Mn
1.1
+10%
1.0
0.9
RM (Proposed)

tance occurs at the point of pure bending. On the other hand, as concrete
contribution becomes dominant, it behaves more like RC members. For 0.8
RC members, in the presence of certain compression force, concrete -10%
cracking can be delayed and moment capacity improves accordingly,
0.7
and thus the maximum moment resistance occurs when the section is
pre-compressed by a certain amount of axial force, which is termed as
balance point in Fig. 23 (b). 0.6 RM(Proposed) Mean=0.978
RM(Numerical) St.dev=0.031

5.2. Proposed method 0.5

0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1
As introduced before, the existing method in EN 1994-1-1 stipulates RM (Numerical)
four anchor points to approximate the N-M curve while the Method 1 in
AISC 360–16 requires three points. It seems that these two methods Fig. 27. Comparison of RM between proposed equation and numerical prediction.
18 B. Lai, J.Y.R. Liew / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 170 (2020) 106136

N 1−α N M 
When bβ þ ¼1 ð15Þ 1:0−ð f c −50Þ=200 50 N=mm2 bf c ≤90 N=mm2
Nn β Nn Mn η¼ ð18Þ
0:8 f c N90 N=mm2

5.2.1. Point A In addition, material compatibility between steel and concrete also
For CES columns with high strength concrete, the axial compression needs to be satisfied. Based on the criterion given by Lai et al. [43], if
capacity is affected by premature cover spalling [2,3,43]. The equations the steel yield strength is not achieved before concrete crushing, the ef-
proposed by Lai et al. [43] have been confirmed to predict the axial ca- fective strength of steel, instead of yield strength, should be used in de-
pacity with good accuracy. As listed in Eqs. (16)–(18), the concrete sign. fys′ and fyl′ refer to the effective strength of high strength steel and
strength reduction factor αcc is incorporated as a product of 0.85 and rebar, which can be determined based on the peak strain of concrete
η, which accounts for the reduction of concrete strength due to prema- and Young's modulus of steel as below [43]:
ture spalling. As the premature cover spalling effect would gradually re- 0
duce as the axial force reduces and moment increases. Connecting point f ys ¼ Es  ε co ≤ f ys ð19Þ
A and Point C in Fig. 24 using straight line reflects this gradual reduction.
0
0 0 f yl ¼ El  εco ≤ f yl ð20Þ
Nn ¼ α cc Ac f c þ As f ys þ Al f yl ð16Þ

α cc ¼ 0:85η ð17Þ where Es and El refer to the Young's modulus of steel section and
longitudinal reinforcing bars.

Fig. 28. Calibration of proposed method against the experimental and numerical results.
 B. Lai, J.Y.R. Liew / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 170 (2020) 106136
5.2.2. Point B
The pure bending capacity of CES members can be predicted by in-
troducing a moment reduction coefficient, RM. As given in Eq. (21), RM
is taken as the ratio of actual moment capacity (MActual) to the full plastic
moment capacity (MPlastic). MActual is computed using the fiber element
analysis and MPlastic can be obtained using Eq. (22) stipulated in EN
1994-1-1 and AISC 360–16.
MActual
RM ¼
MPlastic
   
MPlastic ¼ f ys W ps −W psn þ 0:5  0:85f c W pc −W pcn
 
þ f yl W pl −W p ln
where Wps, Wpc and Wpl refers to the plastic modulus of steel section,
concrete and longitudinal reinforcing bars. Wpsn, Wpcn and Wpln refers
to the plastic modulus of steel section, concrete and longitudinal rein-
forcing bars within the region of 2hn as illustrated in Fig. 25. MActual
equals to Mn in Fig. 24.
RM can be expressed as a function of several parameters. All
the values of R M generated in parametric study are plotted in
Fig. 26. It can be seen that RM experiences significant reduction
as steel yield strength increases from 355 MPa to 960 MPa. For
S355 steel, RM is almost 1.0, implying that full plastic strength
can be achieved. It is noteworthy that RM sometimes even ex-
ceeds 1.0, which may be attributed to the usage of 0.85fc in de-
sign code for conservative purpose (see Fig. 25), while 1.0fc is
used in fiber element analysis. For S960 steel, R M drops to
around 0.6, suggesting that full plastic design overestimates
the actual moment capacity. Except for steel yield strength, con-
crete compressive strength fc and concrete thickness ratio ac /h
also affect RM. It can be seen from Fig. 26 that RM tends to in-
crease with the increase of fc and ac/h.
Based on the regression analysis of both numerical and experi-
mental data, a semi-empirical formula of RM is derived in Eqs. (23)
& (24), which is taken as a function of fys, fc and ac/h. Among these
three variables, fys is the most predominant one affecting the value
of RM.
 with concrete grade up to C100, and steel grade up to S960. How-
−0:54
RM ¼ 1−kð f c Þ f ys −355 ð23Þ
ac
k ¼ 0:0063−0:0013
h which the capacity may not be enhanced as concluded from the
The accuracy of the proposed equation is verified in Fig. 27. It
can be seen that the predicted RM agrees well with the numerical
results.
5.2.3. Point C
Point C can be related to Point A and Point B once the ordinate (β)
and abscissa (α) are determined. As mentioned before, steel contribu-
tion ratio δ controls the overall shape of N-M curve, so α and β can be
also considered as a function of δ. Based on the parametric study, the
N-M curve of high strength CES columns resembles that of steel column
when δ exceeds 0.45. In this case, α and β is recommended to keep as 0.9
and 0.2 as recommended in current AISC 360–16. Below 0.45, α and β
are derived as Eq. (26) based on regression analysis.
When δN0:45 α ¼ 0:9
β ¼ 0:2
When δ≤0:45 α ¼ 0:82δ−0:28
β ¼ 0:13δ−0:61
The predicted bilinear N-M curve is compared with the test re-
sults reported in [10,11,44] and the N-M curve generating using
existing EN 1994-1-1 and AISC 360–16 method. As plotted in the
19
Calculate axial capacity
(Point A) using Eqs. (16-18)
Calculate full plastic moment
capacity using Eq. (22)
ð21Þ
Calculate moment reduction
coefficient RM using Eqs.
ð22Þ (23-24)
Calculate flexural capacity
(Point C) using Eq. (21)
Calculate shape factor α, β to
get Point B using Eqs. (25-26)
Construct simplified N-M
interaction curve (A-C-B)
Fig. 29. Flowchart of generating N-M interaction curve using the proposed method.
Fig. 28, the proposed method gives conservative and reasonable pre-
diction of the actual response of high strength CES columns. High
level accuracy is achieved in terms of axial capacity, flexural capac-
ity, as well as the capacity with coupled compression and bending.
Therefore, this method can be employed as an efficient tool for prac-
titioners to approximate the N-M interaction curve of CES columns
ever, given the fact that high strength steel may not be able to de-
velop the full plastic strength due to concrete failure, the
maximum steel grade is recommended to be capped at S550, beyond
ð24Þ
parametric study.
A step-by-step flowchart is given in Fig. 29 to summarize the proce-
dure of generating N-M curve using the proposed method. It should be
noted that this is a unified method that works for concrete Class up to
C100 and steel Grade up to S960 of any combinations. However, for
the plastic design method that uses plastic stress blocks to evaluate
the cross section resistance, e.g. EN 1994-1-1, the material compatibility
of high-strength steel and high-strength concrete should be satisfied.
6. Conclusions
A nonlinear inelastic analysis method using a fiber element
model is proposed to study the axial force-moment interaction be-
haviour of high strength concrete encased composite (CES) sec-
ð25Þ
tions. The proposed numerical model is capable of capturing the
important attributes that affect the behaviour of high strength
ð26Þ
CES column including concrete cover spalling, concrete confine-
ment, longitudinal bars buckling, and strain-hardening of the em-
bedded steel section. Good agreement was observed between
numerical and experimental results in terms of the flexural stiff-
ness, first peak load, second peak load, and load displacement
behaviour.
20 B. Lai, J.Y.R. Liew / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 170 (2020) 106136
From the parametric study conducted using the fiber element
analysis, the use of higher strength steel section, such as grades
S690 and S960, is not effective in enhancing the cross-section ca-
pacity of CES composite section. In addition, the shape of N-M
curve varies depending on the contribution of steel section.
A simplified design method is proposed to construct N-M strength
interaction curve for high strength CES columns. Good agreement is
achieved between predicted result and test results. The proposed
method requires three feature points to construct the N-M interaction
curve, i.e., one representing pure compression capacity, one represen-
ting pure bending capacity, and an additional point controlling the
shape of N-M curve. When the steel contribution ratio reaches 0.45
and above, the N-M shape can be approximated by the equations sug-
gested in AISC 360–16. Otherwise, the proposed equation should
be used.
Although the proposed method is applicable for CES columns with
concrete grade up to C100 and steel grade up to S960, the steel section
grade should be capped at S550 to ensure optimum use of the concrete
and steel material strengths.
Acknowledgement
The present research work is funded by Building & Construction
Authority in Singapore under project grant R-302-000-168-490. JFE
Steel Corporation and Yongnam Engineering & Construction are also
gratefully acknowledged for supply and fabrication of the test
specimens.
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