Theoretical and experimental study on load-carrying capacity of combined members consisted of inner and sleeved tubes

Load-carrying capacity of combined members consisted of inner and sleeved tubes subjected to axial compression was investigated in this paper. Considering the initial bending of the inner tube and perfect elasto-plasticity material model, structural behavior of the sleeved member was analyzed by theoretic deduction, which could be divided into three states: the elastic inner tube contacts the outer sleeved tube, only the inner tube becomes plastic and both the inner and outer sleeved tubes become plastic. Curves between axial compressive loads and lateral displacements of the middle sections of the inner tubes were obtained. Then four sleeved members were analyzed through FEM, and the numerical results were consistent with the theoretic formulas. Finally, experiments of full-scale sleeved members were performed. The results obtained from the theoretical analysis were verified against experimental results. The compressive load-lateral displacement curves from the theoretical analysis and the tests are similar and well indicate the point when the inner tube contacts the sleeved tube. Load-carrying capacity of the inner tube can be improved due to the sleeved tube. This paper provides theoretical basis for application of the sleeved members in reinforcement engineering.