Shear behavior of concrete-encased square concrete-filled steel tube members: Experiments and strength prediction

This paper presents experiments and theoretical analysis on shear behavior of eight concrete-encased square concrete-filled steel tube (CECFST) specimens and three traditional reinforced concrete (RC) specimens. A total of 11 specimens with the test parameters including the shear span-to-depth ratio, steel tube size and studs arrangement were tested to explore the shear performance of CECFST specimens. The failure mode, shear capacity and displacement ductility were thoroughly evaluated. The test results indicated that all the test specimens failed in shear, and the CECFST specimens enhanced by the interior CFST core exhibited higher shear capacity and better ductility performance than that of the RC specimens. When the other parameters were the same, the larger steel tube size, the smaller shear span-to-depth ratio and the existence of studs could lead to the more satisfactory shear behavior. Then, based on the compatible truss-arch model, a set of formulas were developed to analytically predict the shear strength of the CECFST members by considering the compatibility of deformation between the truss part, arch part and the steel tube. Compared with the calculated results based on several current design specifications, the proposed formulas could get more accurate prediction.