Assessment of stress-strain model for UHPC confined by steel tube stub columns

Ultra high performance concrete (UHPC) has recently been applied as an alternative to conventional concrete in construction due to its extremely high compressive and tensile strength, and enhanced durability. However, up to date, there has been insufficient information regarding the confinement behavior of UHPC columns. Therefore, this study aims to perform an assessment of axial stress-strain model for UHPC confined by circular steel tube stub columns. The equations for calculating the confined peak stress and its corresponding strain of confined concrete in existing models suggested by Johansson (2002), Sakino et al. (2004), Han et al. (2005), Hatzigeorgiou (2008) were modified based on the regression analysis of test results in Schneider (2006) in order to increase the prediction accuracy for the case of confined UHPC. Furthermore, a new axial stress-strain model for confined UHPC was developed. To examine the suitability of the modified models and the proposed model for confined UHPC, axial stress-strain curves derived from the proposed models were compared with those obtained from previous test results. After validating the proposed model, an extensive parametric study was undertaken to investigate the effects of diameter-to-thickness ratio, steel yield strength and concrete compressive strength on the complete axial stress-strain curves, the strength and strain enhancement of UHPC confined by circular steel tube stub columns.