Tests on sea sand concrete-filled stainless steel tubular stub columns

This paper presents a series of tests on sea sand concrete-filled stainless steel tubular (SSCFST) stub columns under axial compression, where the main test parameters include type of fine aggregates (river sand, desalted sea sand and sea sand), steel ratio, and concrete strength. The failure mode, axial load versus axial shorten response, cross-sectional strength of the SSCFST specimens are investigated and compared with those of traditional composite columns with normal concrete. The confinement effect between stainless tube and the sea sand concrete is also evaluated. High strength and good ductility was observed for the tested SSCFST stub columns. In general, when being used as the concrete core in a composite column, differences of confinement behaviour between sea sand concrete and normal concrete are not significant, indicating the potential adoption of SSCFST columns in practice.