Experimental study on the seismic performance of concrete filled steel tubular laced columns

Concrete filled steel tubular (CFST) laced columns have been widely used in high rise buildings in China. Compared to solid-web columns, this type of columns has a larger cross-section with less weight. In this paper, four concrete filled steel tubular laced columns consisting of 4 main steel-concrete tubes were tested under cyclic loading. Hysteresis and failure mechanisms were studied based on the results from the lateral cyclic loading tests. The influence of each design parameter on restoring forces was investigated, including axial compression ratio, slenderness ratio, and the size of lacing tubes. The test results show that all specimens fail in compression-bending-shear and/or compression-bending mode. Overall, the hysteresis curves appear in a full bow shape, indicating that the laced columns have a good seismic performance. The bearing capacity of the columns decreases with the increasing slenderness ratio, while increases with an increasing axial compression ratio. For the columns with a smaller axial compression ratio (< 0.3), their ductility is increased. Furthermore, with the increasing slenderness ratio, the yield displacement increases, the bending failure characteristic is more obvious, and the hysteretic loops become stouter. The results obtained from the numerical analyses were compared with the experimental results. It was found that the numerical analysis results agree well with the experimental results.