Degradation of buckling capacity of slender concrete-filled double skin steel tubular columns due to interface compliance

In this paper a novel mathematical model and its analytical solution of global buckling behaviour of slender elastic concrete-filled double-skin tubular (CFDST) columns with finite compliance between the steel tubes and a sandwiched concrete core is derived for the first time. The model is capable of investigating the influence of various basic parameters on critical buckling loads of CFDST columns. It is shown that the elastic buckling load of circular and slender CFDST columns is independent on longitudinal contact stiffness, but, on the other hand, it can be considerably dependent on circumferential contact stiffness. The increasing of the circumferential contact stiffness increases the critical buckling load. Furthermore, it is shown that analytical results can agree well with the experimental and numerical results if the calibrated values of circumferential contact stiffness are used in the calculations. Moreover, it is shown that the contact between the steel tubes and a sandwiched concrete core of tested large-scale CFDST columns used in the comparison is relatively weak. Finally, the proposed analytical results can be used as a benchmark solution.