Post-Fire Exposure Behavior of Circular Concrete-filled Steel Tube Column under Axial Loading

Concrete-filled steel tube (CFST) columns are a composite member which mainly consists of steel tube infilled with concrete that are increasingly being used as load-carrying members these days. In construction industry, CFST columns are being preferred for the development of tall buildings and long-span bridges. This paper presents an experimental investigation on concrete-filled steel tube (CFST) columns which were post heated and were subjected to axial loading. The thickness of the casing steel was 4 mm and 5 mm and diameter was 100 mm, 125 mm and 150 mm and were infilled with concrete of grade M30 which were used in the present study. This study also represents the behavior of CFST columns for two cooling regimes (annealing and quenching) after exposure to elevated temperatures of 600 °C and 800 °C. The results obtained from experimental analysis were compared to each other in terms of load-deformation pattern, ultimate load capacity, residual strength index, secant stiffness and ductility index. The test results showed that as compared with water quenching, annealing is slightly better for post fire cooling of CFST columns. Also, the results obtained by the experimental investigation were compared with each other on the basis of two cooling regimes.