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Enhancing the strength of reinforced concrete columns using steel embedded tubes

Abstract This paper demonstrates an experimental and numerical study on the behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) columns with longitudinal steel embedded tubes positioned at the center of the column cross-section. A total of 12 pin-ended square sectional columns of 150 × 150 mm having a total height of 1400 mm were investigated. The considered variables were the steel tube diameters of 29, 58, and 76 mm and the load eccentricity (0, 50, and 150) mm. Accordingly, these columns were divided into three groups (four columns in each group) depending on the load eccentricity (e) to column depth (h) ratio (e/h = 0, 1/3, and 1). For each group, one column was solid (reference), and the other three columns contained steel tubes with hollow ratios of (3, 12, and 20) % depending on tube diameters used. The results were recorded, and the influence of steel tubes and eccentricities on the results was obtained and discussed. The experimental results indicated an improvement in the overall behavior of eccentric columns when steel embedded tubes are used. The maximum gains in strength and ductility were about 59% and 33% respectively, for the hollow ratio of 20% with e/h = 1. Comparable results to the experimental ones were also obtained by nonlinear finite element analysis (FEA) using ABAQUS software. The comparisons showed good agreement in terms of ultimate loads and load-deflection relationships. In addition, interaction diagrams for the test columns have also been obtained using FEA and strictly compared with similar diagrams belonging to RC columns having no tubes but same hollow ratios.