EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF CONCRETE-FILLED STEEL TUBULAR DUMBBELL SHAPED COLUMNS UNDER ECCENTRIC LOADS

Experiments of 8 concrete-filled steel tube (CFST) dumbbell-shaped columns under eccentrically loads are introduced. The load eccentricity ratio is taken as the experimental parameter. The test results indicate that the behavior of CFST dumbbell shaped eccentrically-loaded columns is similar to that of CFST single tubular specimens. The analyses of the ultimate load-carrying capacity show that the predicted results by the equivalent area method are too conservative and those obtained from truss method are larger than the test results. The predicted ultimate load by a modified truss method proposed in this paper agrees well with the test results. The modified truss method is shown to be safe and promising in engineering practice.