Compressive performance of RAC filled GFRP tube-profile steel composite columns under axial loads

To investigate the axial compressive performance of the recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) filled glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) tube and profile steel composite columns, static loading tests were carried out on 18 specimens under axial loads in this study, including 7 RAC filled GFRP tube columns and 11 RAC filled GFRP tube-profile steel composite columns. The design parameters include recycled coarse aggregate (RCA) replacement percentage, profile steel ratio, slenderness ratio and RAC strength. The failure process, failure modes, axial stress-strain curves, strain development and axial bearing capacity of all specimens were mainly analyzed in detail. The experimental results show that the GFRP tube had strong restraint ability to RAC material and the profile steel could improve the axial compressive performance of the columns. The failure modes of the columns can be summarized as follow: the profile steel in the composite columns yielded first, then the internal RAC material was crushed, and finally the fiberglass of the external GFRP tube was seriously torn, resulting in the final failure of columns. The axial bearing capacity of the columns decreased with the increase of RCA replacement percentage and the maximum decreasing amplitude was 11.10%. In addition, the slenderness ratio had an adverse effect on the axial bearing capacity of the columns. However, the strength of the RAC material could effectively improve the axial bearing capacity of the columns, but their deformability decreased. In addition, the increasing profile steel ratio contributed to the axial compressive capacity of the composite columns. Based on the above analysis, a formula for calculating the bearing capacity of composite columns under axial compression load is proposed, and the adverse effects of slenderness ratio and RCA replacement percentage are considered.