Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Post-fire bond between the steel tube and concrete in concrete-filled steel
tubular columns
Zhong Tao a,b, , Lin-Hai Han c , Brian Uy a , Xian Chen b
a
School of Engineering, University of Western Sydney, Penrith South DC, NSW 1797, Australia
b
College of Civil Engineering, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, Fujian Province, 350108, China
c
Department of Civil Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China
1. Introduction 600 C showed a strength loss of about 83% when compared with
its companion specimen tested at 100 C. According to Chiang and
Composite columns integrate the favorable characteristics of Tsai [4], bond degradation after fire exposure is mainly owing to
steel and concrete materials, therefore providing the merits of the fact that high temperatures cause water migration, dehydra-
high strength and stiffness, high speed of construction, large tion of concrete, and decomposition of cement hydration products.
energy dissipation, and considerable economy [1]. For this reason, Internal stress and thus micro- and macrocracks are generated
concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) columns have been used widely due to the inhomogeneous volume dilations of ingredients and the
in many countries in recent decades. buildup of vapor pressure in the pores.
Nowadays, numerous research studies have been conducted It is expected that elevated temperatures will also have a signif-
on the performance of CFST members under different conditions, icant impact on the bond between the steel tube and concrete in
and some attention has been paid to the fire resistance of CFST
CFST columns. Although many studies have been performed in the
members or their residual properties after exposure to high tem-
past to investigate the bond behaviour at ambient temperatures
peratures [2,3]. Generally, the exposure of CFST members to fire
for CFST columns [612], no research has been conducted so far
can lead to significant loss of strength and stiffness. Research
concerning their post-fire bond behaviour. An assessment of the
also showed that high temperatures had significant influence
degree of deterioration of the bond in CFST columns after expo-
on the residual bond strength between steel bars and concrete
[4]. Furthermore, Hunaiti [5] tested 21 battened composite sure to fire can help engineers to evaluate the reliability of the load
columns, which had been heat-treated at different temperatures transfer between the steel tube and concrete at various locations if
ranging from 50 to 600 C, to investigate the bond between steel necessary.
and concrete. It was found that the loss in bond strength was In this paper, a test program is introduced to investigate
significantly higher for high temperatures. A specimen tested at the bond between the steel tube and concrete in CFST columns
that have been exposed to and damaged by standard ISO 834
fire [13]. Push-out tests were further carried out to investigate
Corresponding author at: School of Engineering, University of Western Sydney, the influence of different parameters on the bond strength and
Penrith South DC, NSW 1797, Australia. Tel.: +61 2 4736 0064; fax: +61 2 4736 0137. bondslip curves. The bond mechanisms are also discussed in this
E-mail addresses: z.tao@uws.edu.au, taozhong@fzu.edu.cn (Z. Tao). paper.
0143-974X/$ see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jcsr.2010.09.006
Z. Tao et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 67 (2011) 484496 485
Table 1
Specimen labels and test results.
No. Specimen label D t Li (mm) Li /D fcu (MPa) fy (MPa) T (min) Nu (kN) Nmax (kN) u (MPa) Su (mm) Curve type Remarks
Table 1 (continued)
No. Specimen label D t Li (mm) Li /D fcu (MPa) fy (MPa) T (min) Nu (kN) Nmax (kN) u (MPa) Su (mm) Curve type Remarks
71 S8-180a 200 5 1000 5 52.3 320 180 419.7 482.3 0.55 2.41 C
72 S8-180b 200 5 1000 5 52.3 320 180 400.0 554.2 0.53 2.84 C
73 S9-90a 200 5 1400 7 52.3 320 90 420.3 691.0 0.40 3.27 C
74 S9-90b 200 5 1400 7 52.3 320 90 365.8 594.5 0.34 3.07 C
75 S9-180a 200 5 1400 7 52.3 320 180 610.6 0.57
76 S9-180b 200 5 1400 7 52.3 320 180 609.7 0.57
Table 2
Material properties of steel.
Type Thickness Elastic modulus Yield strength Poissons Ultimate strength Elongation Used in specimen
(mm) (kN/mm2 ) (N/mm2 ) ratio (N/mm2 ) percentage (%) series
Table 3
Mixture and material properties of concrete.
Type Water Cement Fly ash Sand Aggregate Water reducer Slump Slump flow fcu,f fcu Ec Used in specimen
(kg/m3 ) (kg/m3 ) (kg/m3 ) (kg/m3 ) (kg/m3 ) (kg/m3 ) (mm) (mm) (N/mm2 ) series
SCC-I 190 260 240 740 950 5.4 265 640 25.3 46.1 27 300 C5, S5
SCC-II 170 380 170 800 835 6.08 240 560 45.3 52.3 29 500 C1, C4, C7-C9, S1,
S4, S7-S9
SCC-III 190 260 240 740 950 5.4 255 650 40.0 53.2 35 500 C3, S3
SCC-IV 170 380 170 800 835 6.08 260 590 57.3 72.1 38 900 C2, S2
NC 210 552 611 1137 50.4 63.3 34 500 C6, S6
In a real fire situation, thermal creep deformation will occur for 3. Test results and discussion
the steel and concrete materials in a loaded column. Owing to the
limitation of the furnace facility, the specimens were not loaded A general view of the specimens after testing is shown in
during the fire exposure in the current test program. Further Fig. 2. The failure mode was characterised by the slip between the
research is required in the future to address this issue. steel tube and concrete, which could be observed on the top of a
specimen. There was no other visible change in appearance for the
2.5. Test setup and instrumentation steel tubes except the spalling off of oxide layers formed during the
fire exposure.
Bond tests were conducted about 7 months later after the heat
treatment. Prior to the bond tests, the top surfaces of all specimens 3.1. Bond stress ( ) versus slip (S) curves
were ground smooth to provide a level surface and to ensure
even distribution of the applied load. A 2000 kN capacity testing Average bond stress ( ) is used in this paper to evaluate the
machine was used to conduct the bond tests as shown in Fig. 1. The bond behaviour between a steel tube and its concrete core, which
specimen was set up in the testing machine in a vertical position is the push load divided by the area of the interface. Therefore,
with the air gap at the bottom. A steel block was placed between in this paper refers to the average bond stress unless otherwise
the specimen and the top platen of the testing machine. The steel indicated. Although the distribution of local bond stress along a
block had a cross-section which was a little smaller than that of tube and across its perimeter may not be uniform, the concept of
the concrete core. This assured the load to be applied only on average bond stress is quite straightforward and can be interpreted
the concrete core and allowed the concrete core to be pushed and used by engineers very easily.
downward when testing. The load was measured using a load cell Fig. 3 shows typical average bond stress ( ) versus loaded-end
which was placed on the steel block. slip (S) curves. For clarity, a slip in this paper refers to the one
All specimens were tested under monotonic loading with a measured at the loaded end in the following unless otherwise
loading rate of about 0.5 mm/min. Axial strains in the steel were noted. Generally, the obtained S curves can be classified into
measured using strain gauges installed along the length of steel three types, which depend on the mutual influences of different
tubes. The spacing between two adjacent strain gauges ranged parameters. The corresponding curve types for all circular and
from 125 to 150 mm. It is possible to analyse the load transfer square specimens are summarised in Table 1. It should be noted
mechanism from the concrete core to the steel tube based on the that no curve type is assigned to the specimens S9-180a and S9-
strain readings. In the current tests, both slip values at the loaded 180b. This is owing to the fact that these two square specimens
and free ends were measured. This was achieved by readings of were the longest and had been exposed to fire for 180 min. Due
seven linear variable displacement transducers (LVDT) mounted to the fire damage to the steel, the tubes buckled unexpectedly at
on the specimen as shown in Fig. 1. LVDT 1 and LVDT 2 were used the end of the bottom before the ultimate bond strength could be
to measure the slip at the loaded end, while LVDT 3 to LVDT 6 were developed between the steel tube and concrete. Without concrete
used to monitor initial settlements of the steel tube at the bottom. at the bottom to support the steel tube, a pre-mature weld fracture
Therefore, the free end slip was calculated from the readings of occurred at the end of testing. Thus, particular attention should be
LVDT 7 by subtracting the obtained initial settlements. paid in any further bond tests to avoid this problem.
488 Z. Tao et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 67 (2011) 484496
a b
(a) All specimens after testing. (b) Typical circular section. (c) Typical square section.
Type A curve shown in Fig. 3(a) is the typical S relationship The S curves of about two-thirds of circular specimens and
with a falling branch beyond the maximum bond stress. In the two-fifths of square specimens can be classified into Type B group.
current tests, about one-third of circular specimens and one-fifth Compared with Type A curves, a Type B curve shows quite similar
square specimens demonstrated this feature. The majority of the features except the existence of the second ascending portion C D .
specimens are those without fire exposure or with a fire exposure At Point C , the minimum residual strength is attained, which
of 180 min. For a Type A curve, it has an initial linear portion is about 40%80% of the bond strength at Point B for circular
(OA) up to 50%80% of the peak bond strength, followed by a columns, and 50%90% of that for square columns. The bond stress
transitional portion (AB). After reaching the peak strength (Point increases once again beyond Point C . Compared with the residual
B), a rapidly declining portion BC appears before relatively stable strength at Point C , the bond stress at the end of testing (Point D )
residual strength can be achieved. Although the residual strength generally increases by 20%120%. Therefore, of the Type B curves,
keeps decreasing from Point C to Point D, the curve tends to flatten the residual strengths of three circular specimens and the majority
as it approaches Point D. In some cases, the curve can be a nearly of square columns are even much higher than their corresponding
horizontal flat one after reaching Point C. The residual strength at bond stresses at Point B . The strength increase ranges from 20%
the end of the testing is about 35%65% of the peak strength for to 80%. The maximum push-out loads (Nmax ) recorded at the end
Type A circular specimens, while that for the square specimens of testing are presented in Table 1 if they are larger than their
ranges from 60% to 85% of the peak strength. corresponding ultimate loads.
Z. Tao et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 67 (2011) 484496 489
A typical Type C S curve is depicted in Fig. 3(b), which but it failed and decayed rapidly. The slip corresponding to the peak
is characterised by the lack of any falling branch. For the tests bond strength was about 0.5 mm for Group ST. The response of
presented in this paper, Type C curves are only observed for Group PH showed a near absence of an initially stiff region, but the
about two-fifths of square specimens, and most of them had been bond resistance resulted from macro-interlocking kept increasing
exposed to fire for 90 min. No circular specimens can be classified until the end of testing. After compared with the tests results of
into this group. Initially, there is an elastic response until reaching Group CS, Virdi and Dowling [6] postulated that the ultimate bond
Point A , where the bond stress is about 60%80% of the ultimate strength for CFST columns was mainly contributed by friction.
bond strength at Point B , followed by the inelastic response with To further understand the bond mechanisms, it is necessary to
gradually decreasing slope. After reaching the transitional Point B , check the bond stress distribution along the length of tubes. The
the S response is almost linear up to the end of the testing (Point bond stresses can be obtained based on the axial strain gradients
C ). Generally, the bond stress at Point C is 1.31.9 times the bond in the steel tube [8]. According to Roeder et al. [8], the axial
strength at Point B . strain gradients are related by statics to the interface bond stress
distribution. If Nx is the axial load in the steel tube at location x,
3.2. Bond mechanisms and bond stress distribution then the bond stress, (x), can be given by
dNx
To understand the different responses in terms of S rela- (x) = (1)
tionship, it is necessary to check the bond mechanisms between C dx
the steel tube and concrete first. It is well known that bond can where C is the perimeter of the concrete section in contact with the
be considered as a result of three different mechanisms: chemi- steel tube, and is equal to (D 2t ) and 4(B 2t ), respectively,
cal adhesion, friction and macro-interlocking [6,16]. The friction, for circular and square sections.
which was also called as micro-interlocking by some researchers Figs. 4 and 5 demonstrate the axial strain variations and bond
[6], mainly arises from the roughness of the steel surface, while stress distributions along the length of two typical specimens,
the macro-interlocking is owing to the surface irregularities re- respectively. It should be noted that the axial strains measured
lated to the manufacturing tolerances. Both friction and macro- at the bottom were normally smaller than the expected values.
interlocking can cause mechanical keying of the concrete core with This is owing to the influence of the constraint conditions at the
the steel tube, and therefore macro-interlocking can also be viewed bottom as shown in Fig. 6, where the steel tube had a tendency to
as friction. From another point of view, the macro-interlocking, deform outwardly due to the Poissons effect, but was restrained
somehow, is comparable to the mechanical interlocking between at the end. Therefore, the measured strains near the bottom were
the ribs of deformed reinforcement bars and concrete. not used to calculate the bond stresses at that location, which were
In practice, it is very difficult to separate the three components alternatively determined based on the assumption that all the push
of bond since the distribution of surface irregularities is quite vari- load was carried by the steel tube alone at the bottom.
able and uneven. Moreover, there is no practical criterion that can Apparently, the trends of the axial strain distributions shown
be used to distinguish between the micro-interlocking and macro- in Fig. 4 for the circular and square specimens are quite different.
interlocking. To make matters more complicated, the shrinkage For the circular specimen C9-90b, the axial strain of the steel
of concrete has significant influence on the bond behaviour and tube increased very fast within a short distance away from the
may affect the bond contribution of different components. How- loaded end. It indicates the fast development of local bond stress
ever, some efforts were made by Virdi and Dowling [6], where between the steel tube and concrete in this area. Since only the
three circular specimens of Group ST had their inside surfaces concrete was loaded on the top, it would dilate under compression,
machined to a smooth finish, and another group of three circu- and generated radial contact pressure (p) between the steel tube
lar specimens (Group PH) had their inner surfaces covered with a and concrete, as shown in Fig. 6. The radial pressure resulted
lubricant in five coats. Therefore, the surface roughness of Group from the confinement of the steel tube could further enhance the
ST was greatly diminished, and the bond strength was believed frictional resistance and therefore bond stress at the top, as shown
to have been resulted mainly from the chemical adhesion. On the in Fig. 5(a). In other words, strong composite action was formed
other hand, the bond for specimens in Group PH was largely con- between the circular steel tube and concrete. As the majority of
tributed by the macro-interlocking effect. The test results of Group the load was transferred from the concrete to the steel tube at
ST and PH were further compared with those of normal specimens the top, the compression was low in the concrete and high in the
(Group CS) without any surface treatment. It seems that the bond steel in the lower part of the column. Therefore, small or even
strength from chemical adhesion only (Group ST) could attain a no contact pressure would be formed between the steel tube and
value of about 19% ultimate bond strength in normal conditions, concrete there. This led to the much slower increase of axial strain
490 Z. Tao et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 67 (2011) 484496
in the lower part of the tube, and the bond stresses in this area
were also much smaller than those at the top. As far as the square
specimen S9-90b is concerned, the axial strain distribution along
the length was close to a simple triangle as shown in Fig. 4(b).
This demonstrates that the square column was not so efficient
in transferring load between the steel tube and concrete as its
circular counterpart. Friction could be formed uniformly around
the perimeter of a circular tube, but mainly formed only in the
vicinity of the corners of a square tube [7]. Therefore, the square
column S9-90 took a much longer length to develop reliable bond,
and the bond stresses, in general, distributed more evenly along the
length of the specimen. The fluctuation in the stress distribution
shown in Fig. 5(b) was attributed to the strain measurement errors
and especially the irregularities of the steel tube. It is worth noting
that the bond stresses at the bottom were often larger than those
at its adjacent measure points. This is somewhat owing to the
pinching effect as shown in Fig. 6. But this effect was not expected
to be critical since the steel tube remained elastic during the tests.
Another important reason is that there was local slip and bond
stress transfer occurred at the bottom since the total load of the Fig. 6. Deformation of steel tube under push-out force.
specimen was resisted by the steel.
In the current test program, the free-end slip was also bond strength, the effect of diminishing friction will outweigh the
measured. A typical bond stress versus free-end slip curve for beneficial influence of the increasing macro-interlocking. In this
specimen C4-0a is shown in Fig. 7. Therefore, the initiation of the case, the S response will be a Type A or Type B curve with an
slip at the free end can be recognised. Generally, very small slip obvious declining branch. Otherwise, it will show the feature of
at the free end occurs in the initial loading stage. The slip at the Type C curves. Actually, the transition between the second and
free end develops much more quickly after Point A is reached, the third stages was not always as smooth as that shown in Fig. 3.
which approximately coincides with the termination of the elastic Sometimes, sudden decrease in bond strength was observed after
responses of S curves shown in Fig. 3. Therefore, during the the ultimate bond strength had been reached, as shown in Fig. 8.
elastic stage, the bond resistance is contributed mainly by chemical But part of the bond strength recovered soon. This phenomenon
adhesion and friction. In most cases, the chemical adhesion is was also observed and reported by some other researchers [9,10].
only active in the initial loading stage since the average loaded- In this paper, three circular specimens (C1-90a, C1-90b, and C4-
end slip at the end of elastic stage for all the test specimens is 90b) and almost all the unheated square specimens demonstrated
1.65 mm in the current tests. This value is much larger than the this feature. For these specimens, it seems the adhesion and friction
value of 0.5 mm corresponding to the peak bond strength for reduced too fast before the macro-interlocking could absorb the
Group ST reported by Virdi and Dowling [6]. Although the maro- energy stored in the specimens. All these specimens are classified
interlocking mechanism also starts to work in this stage after into Type B group in this paper. As mentioned earlier, the only
the slip initiates at the top, it is not significant according to the difference between Type A and Type B curves is the existence of
test results presented by Virdi and Dowling [6]. After the notable a second ascending portion. For a Type B curve, it seems that the
slippage occurred at the free end, a second stage of behaviour residual strength is mainly contributed by the macro-interlocking,
develops characterised by a gradual softening of the stiffness of thus the residual strength increases during the later loading stage.
S response. The reason is that the adhesion is now negligible, This might happen if the residual bond resistance contributed by
and the bond capacity coming from the friction begins to reduce as friction is minor or the macro-interlocking grows very fast for
well. The friction reduction could be attributed to the shearing off specimens with large fabrication tolerances.
of mortar which extends into small pits in the steel tube. Now, the Identical specimens have been prepared to conduct push-out
macro-interlocking starts to play an important role in this stage. tests for most test series. Generally, the agreement is reasonable
After the ultimate bond strength has been achieved, a third stage for each pair of duplicate specimens in terms of ultimate bond
of behaviour develops, during which the friction is diminishing strength and S curve. Therefore, bond strengths obtained from
rapidly in most cases while the bond resistance from macro- the average of two individual push-out results are used and
interlocking keeps increasing. For specimens with high ultimate compared in the following discussion. It is worth noting that,
Z. Tao et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 67 (2011) 484496 491
(a) Inner surface of the circular tube. (b) Inner surface of the square tube.
Fig. 10 shows the normalized cr with respect to the correspond- fire-exposed circular and square specimens, and the fire exposure
ing ultimate bond strength (u ). Obviously, there is considerable period has no significant influence on cr /u either.
scatter in cr /u values across the sample. But cr /u values are, in
general, bigger than 0.5. For circular columns, smaller cr /u values 3.5. Influence of different parameters
were achieved for those fire-damaged specimens compared with
those undamaged ones. But for square columns, the trend is just 3.5.1. Effects of fire exposure time and cross-section type
the opposite. The explanation could be that friction contributes It is no doubt that fire exposure has impact on the chemical
significantly to the bond strength for circular columns before cr adhesion and friction between the steel tube and concrete.
is reached, while for square columns, the friction is less effective. Furthermore, it can lead to the change of concrete volume, and
This is confirmed by the fact that friction marks were observed thus affects the composite action between the steel tube and
around the perimeter of a circular tube, but mainly found in the concrete. The volume change of concrete causes a radial reduction
vicinity of the corners of a square tube, as shown in Fig. 11. This or enlargement. Its influence on the bond behaviour has been well
phenomenon was also observed by Shakir-Khalil [7]. It looks like documented by Roeder et al. [8].
that concrete strength has strong influence on friction according According to the test results reported by Khoury [17], after ini-
to its formation mechanism mentioned earlier. Long-time fire ex- tial expansion, cement pastes could undergo considerable shrink-
posure will decrease the concrete strength, which in turn causes age above 100 C, as they lost evaporable water and as dehydration
the earlier shearing off of the bonding mortar and reduces the of the various hydrates occurred at different temperatures. Mean-
friction between the steel tube and concrete. For this reason, the while, substantial residual expansion was observed for aggregates
fire-damaged circular specimens attained their ultimate state soon in concrete. The tests conducted by Khoury [17] indicate that lime-
after cr was reached, and cr /u increased accordingly. But for stone aggregate exhibited residual expansion after cooling from
the square specimens, chemical adhesion was more important in about 350 C demonstrating thermal instability at that tempera-
contributing to the bond strength before cr was reached since fric- ture. A third contributing factor to the volume change of concrete
tion was less effective in this case. Not like friction, the whole in- is crack development. Micro-cracking formed during cooling can
terface can provide adhesion to resist the push-out load. This is lead to significant residual expansion of concrete. Therefore, resid-
proved by the fact that the inner surfaces of square steel tubes ual strain of concrete after exposure to fire will greatly depend
were still covered with the remainder of mortar after the push- on the temperature history, aggregate type, cement type, water-
out testing, as shown in Fig. 11(b). Therefore, the square tubes had binder ratio, and cement replacement ratio used. It is worth noting
larger cr /u values at ambient temperatures since chemical adhe- that post-fire concrete may also experience some volume change
sion was likely to be conquered just before the rigid body slip of the after absorbing moisture from the atmosphere. However, this in-
concrete occurred. But after exposure to fire, the chemical adhe- fluence is minimized for CFST columns since the concrete is cast in
sion was affected by fire damage, leading to the earlier occurrence the steel tubes.
of slip and smaller cr /u . It can also be found from Fig. 10 that there At this moment, it is still very difficult to accurately predict
is no statistically significant difference between the cr /u ratios for the residual strain of concrete after fire exposure. This is owing
Z. Tao et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 67 (2011) 484496 493
Table 4
Calculated temperatures at different locations.
Section type Cross-sectional dimension (mm) T = 90 min T = 180 min
Point 1 Point 2 Point 3 Point 1 Point 2 Point 3
S3
S3
S3
3.5.2. Effect of cross-sectional dimension was reached compared with that for specimen C9-90b shown in
The effect of cross-sectional dimension on u is depicted in Fig. 5(a).
Fig. 16. In general, the bond strength decreased significantly when It is worth noting that there is an exception to this size effect
D or B increased. This is consistent with the observation made observed for specimens C4-90a and C4-90b, which had even
by Roeder et al. [8]. The larger the tube size, the bigger the gap higher bond strength (increased by 17.9%) compared with their
forms between the steel tube and concrete due to the shrinkage counterparts C1-90a and C1-90b. A possible explanation for this
of concrete. For this reason, the bond stress distribution for big is that macro-interlocking effect was more significant for C4-90a
circular specimens is now quite different from that shown in and C4-90b since they had a much longer length than C1-90a and
Fig. 5(a). Owing to the existence of the gap, there was no bond C1-90b. This phenomenon was not observed for corresponding
stress formed near the loaded end initially, and the longitudinal square columns since they had much smaller effective contact area
distribution of bond stress became much more uniform when u and thus the influence of macro-interlocking was less significant.
Z. Tao et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 67 (2011) 484496 495
Table 5
Design bond strength (Rd ) specified in different design codes.
Code AIJ [21] AS 5100 [22] EC4 [23] BS 5400 [24] AISC [25] DBJ/T13-51-2010 [26]
Furthermore, compared with the reference specimens C4-0a and ratio, and cement replacement ratio used for the SCC. In general,
C4-0b, C4-90a and C4-90b also had higher bond strength. This the bond strength of NC was bigger than that of SCC when Class III
is attributed to the fact that the gap between the steel tube and FA was used, but was smaller than the bond strength of SCC when
concrete resulted from concrete shrinkage in large-size columns Class II FA was used. Therefore, within the limitation of the current
was offset by the residual expansion of concrete in C4-90a and C4- tests, the bond strength of SCC is comparable to that of NC.
90b. Therefore, bond stress due to friction developed very fast for
these specimens. But this is not the case for specimens C4-0a and
3.5.5. Effects of fly ash type and different SCC mixtures
C4-0b without fire exposure.
Currently, different design bond strengths (Rd ) for CFST Generally, Class II FA concrete had higher bond strength than
columns are specified in different design codes as summarised in Class III FA concrete except specimens C2-0 and C2-90. Since Class
Table 5, i.e. AIJ [21], AS 5100 [22], EC4 [23], BS 5400 [24], AISC [25], II FA is finer and more active than Class III FA, concrete made
DBJ/T13-51-2010 [26]. Within the limitations of the current tests, from Class II FA is expected to have higher chemical cohesion and
0.4 MPa and 0.15 MPa can be adopted as Rd for circular and square residual strength, which can enhance the bond behaviour between
CFST columns, respectively. From the comparison shown in Fig. 15, the steel tube and concrete. For series C2, the concrete used had
there is no need to consider the fire exposure influence if Rd higher strength and smaller water-binder ratio when compared
is so specified. It is worth noting that three codes including AS with the concrete used in series C3. Therefore, the bond strength
5100, AISC and BS 5400 have specified a same value of 0.4 MPa of C2-0 and C2-90 was greatly affected by concrete shrinkage,
for both circular and square columns. Since the bond mechanisms and the gap thus had an adverse effect on the friction. Due to
for circular and square columns are quite different, the assigned the residual expansion of concrete, there was no gap influence for
value of 0.4 MPa for square columns often exceeds measured bond specimen C2-180. For the square columns, their bond strength was
strength, especially for those big columns. Actually, in this paper, less sensitive to concrete shrinkage. Hence, no exception was found
0.4 MPa is the upper bound for both the unheated specimens and for the square columns with respect to the influence of FA type.
those with a 90 min fire exposure as shown in Fig. 15. It can also be found from Table 1 that cement replacement ratio
and water-binder ratio have some influence on u . For the circular
3.5.3. Effect of Li /D or Li /B ratio specimens, bond strength increased when the cement replacement
ratio increased from 31% to 48% and water-binder ratio increased
The relationship between u and Li /D or Li /B ratio is shown
from 0.31 to 0.38. But the trend was just the opposite for the
in Fig. 17. For circular columns, the trend is that u decreased
square specimens. Undoubtedly, the concrete strength decreased
with increasing Li /D ratio. But the trend for square columns is
just the opposite. Since bond strength is mainly provided by the with increasing cement replacement ratio or water-binder ratio.
steelconcrete interaction near the loaded end for circular This might also result in the reduction in chemical adhesion which
columns, the average bond strength will decrease if the interface contributed greatly to the bond strength of the square columns. But
length increases. Compared with circular tubes, the bond stresses for the circular columns, higher concrete shrinkage resulted from
distribute more evenly along the length of square tubes. The the decrease of cement replacement ratio and water-binder ratio
increase of average bond strength as a function of Li /B ratio for led to a decreased bond strength.
square columns could be explained by the increasing influence
of macro-interlocking. The longer the column, the higher the 3.5.6. Effect of concrete curing condition
tolerance of surface irregularities and overall imperfections are. Concrete moisture could be prevented from dissipating at the
ends if a tube was sealed. Generally, smaller shrinkage can be ex-
3.5.4. Effect of concrete type pected for concrete under sealed condition and reduce the pos-
Two types of concrete, i.e., SCC and NC, were used in the current sible gap formed between the steel tube and concrete. It can be
test program. The effect of concrete type on u can be found in found from Table 1 that all the four sealed specimens with 180
Table 1. It seems that SCC can have a higher or lower bond strength min fire exposure had higher bond strength than their reference
than NC, which greatly depends on the type of FA, water-binder specimens. The increases of average bond strength for the circular
496 Z. Tao et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 67 (2011) 484496
and square columns were 13% and 49%, respectively. But this phe- References
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