Numerical analysis of circular steel tube confined UHPC stub columns

In this paper, a finite element model (FEM) in ATENA-3D software was constructed to investigate the behavior of circular ultra high performance concrete (UHPC) filled steel tube stub columns (UHPC-FSTCs) under concentric loading on concrete core. The CC3DNonLinCementitious2User material type for concrete in ATENA-3D software with some modifications of material laws, was adopted to model for UHPC core with consideration the confinement effect. The experimental results obtained from Schneider (2006) were then employed to verify the accuracy of FEM. Extensive parametric analysis was also conducted to examine the influence of concrete compressive strength, steel tube thickness and steel yield strength on the compressive behavior of short circular UHPC-FSTCs. It can be observed that the columns with thicker steel tube show better strength and ductility, the sudden drop of load after initial peak load can be prevented. Based on the regression analysis of the results from parametric study, simplified formulae for predicting ultimate loads and strains were proposed and verified by comparing with previous analytical models, design codes and experimental results.