Mechanical behavior of steel tube encased high-strength concrete composite walls under constant axial load and cyclically increasing lateral load: Experimental investigation and modeling

This paper presented an investigation into steel tubes encased high-strength concrete (STHC) composite walls, wherein steel tubes were embedded at the boundary elements of high-strength concrete walls. A series of cyclic loading tests was conducted to evaluate the failure pattern, hysteresis characteristics, load-bearing capacity, deformability, and strain distribution of STHC composite walls. The test results demonstrated that the bearing capacity and ductility of the STHC composite walls improved with the embedding of steel tubes at the boundary elements. An analytical method was then established to predict the flexural bearing capacity of the STHC composite walls, and the calculated results agreed well with the experimental values, with errors of less than 10%. Finally, a finite element modeling (FEM) was developed via the OpenSees program to analyze the mechanical performance of the STHC composite wall. The FEM was validated through test results; additionally, the influences of the axial load ratio, steel tube strength, and shear-span ratio on the mechanical properties of STHC composite walls were comprehensively investigated.