Pseudo-static tests of terminal stirrup-confined concrete-filled rectangular steel tubular columns

Abstract This paper mainly presents a pseudo-static test program on 12 terminal stirrup-confined square concrete-filled steel tube (SCFT) columns and 14 rectangular SCFT columns under constant axial pressure. The effects of various factors on the hysteretic behavior of specimens are investigated. These factors include with or without stirrups, height of terminal stirrup region, equivalent stirrup ratio, stirrup form, loading direction, height-length ratio (L/B), length-width ratio (B/D), axial compression ratio (n) and sliding support. The failure mode, strain ratio, hysteretic curve, skeleton curve, ultimate bearing capacity, ductility, stiffness degradation, energy dissipation, as well as the residual deformation of the specimens are analyzed. The results indicate that: (1) When n is relatively larger, the bidirectional stirrups can effectively delay the local buckling of steel tube and greatly increase the ultimate bearing capacity, stiffness, equivalent damping viscosity index, residual deformation rate and ductility index, and further significantly improve the seismic behavior of the rectangular SCFT columns; (2) Axial pressure can improve the confinement effect from the steel tube to the core concrete, also bidirectional stirrups can directly confine the core concrete to decrease strain ratio of the steel tube; (3) With the same value of n, increasing the height of terminal stirrup region or increasing the equivalent stirrup ratio can effectively improve the seismic behavior of the rectangular SCFT columns; (4) The influence of loading direction, L/B and B/D on the ductility of rectangular SCFT columns are not obvious.