Construction and Building Materials 51 (2014) 352–363

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Construction and Building Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat

Behavior of concrete-filled steel tubular stub columns and beams

using dune sand as part of fine aggregate
Wei-Hua Wang a,b, Lin-Hai Han b,⇑, Wei Li b, Yi-Hai Jia c
a
College of Civil Engineering, Huaqiao University, Xiamen 361021, PR China
b
Department of Civil Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, PR China
c
State Key Laboratory of Silica Sand Utilization, Beijing 101500, PR China

h i g h l i g h t s

 We provide new test data for dune sand CFST stub columns and beams.
 We analyze strength and ductility indexes for dune sand CFST members.
 We check the feasibility of current codes for dune sand CFST members.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The concrete using the dune sand as fine aggregate is usually regarded as having low workability and low
Received 29 July 2013 ductility, although it has certain economic advantages. Using the dune sand concrete as the filling sub-
Received in revised form 8 October 2013 stance of tubular structures is possibly a way to use this kind of material, for the outer tube can provide
Accepted 31 October 2013
confinement to its core concrete and thus enhance the ductility of the dune sand concrete. This paper is
Available online 28 November 2013
an attempt to investigate the behavior of concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) stub columns and beams
using dune sand as part of the fine aggregate. A series of CFST stub columns and CFST beams with 10%
Keywords:
fine aggregate replacement ratio of dune sand are tested. For the stub column specimens, the main test
Concrete filled steel tube (CFST)
Dune sand
parameters for stub column specimens are the steel ratio, the concrete strength and the cross-sectional
Stub column type. For the beam specimens, the test parameter is the cross-sectional depth. The failure modes, load-
Beam deformation relation and the strain distribution of composite stub column and beam specimens are
Compressive strength reported, and the strength and the ductility of test specimens are discussed using various indexes. The
Flexural strength formulae for the compressive and flexural strength of normal CFST members are tentatively used to pre-
dict the strength of composite members using dune sand.
Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
River sand resources are excessively exploited against the back-
ground of the increasing demand of the fine aggregate in the con-
crete production. As one of the possible alternative options, the
abundant dune sand from deserts may be used in the concrete
mixtures instead of the river sand.
In China, the desertification area reaches nearly a quarter of the
land area, and the dune sand has been used in constructions for
approximately 100 years. In 1920, the dune sand concrete was
used in building construction in China, and a specification of super
fine sand concrete (BJG19-65) was published in 1965 [1]. Accord-
ing to the specification, the fineness modulus of super fine sand
was defined as less than 1.5 or the average particle size was less
⇑ Corresponding author at: Department of Civil Engineering, Tsinghua University,
Beijing 100084, PR China. Tel./fax: +86 10 62797067.
E-mail address: lhhan@tsinghua.edu.cn (L.-H. Han).
than 0.25 mm. The average grain size ranged from 0.25 to
0.5 mm was defined as the fine sand, and it was classified as the
coarse sand when the average particle size was larger than
0.5 mm. The diameter of dune sand ranges from 0.08 to 0.63 mm,
and the fineness modulus is usually 0.45-0.88 [2,3]. The low fine-
ness modulus and the poor gradation are the critical problems
when using the dune sand for making concrete. The fresh concrete
mixture using the dune sand as the fine aggregate has several spe-
cial characteristics, such as high cohesiveness, small slump, poor
fluidity and easy of segregation and low workability. In addition,
the compressive strength of the dune sand concrete is usually
low too [2,4].
Some research has been conducted on the workability and the
mechanical behavior of cement pastes or mortars with dune sand
powder [2–5]. Zhang et al. [5] carried out experimental research
on the performance of mortar and concrete made of Tengri dune
sand and Mu Us dune sand (both in China). Chemical composition
and physical properties of dune sand were presented, after the

0950-0618/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2013.10.049
 W.-H. Wang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 51 (2014) 352–363
Nomenclature
Ac cross-sectional area of concrete
As cross-sectional area of steel
Asc cross-sectional area of composite member, given by
As + Ac
b width of composite beams sections
B width of square stub column sections
D outside diameter of circular CFST sections
Ec modulus of elasticity of concrete
fc characteristic cylinder strength of concrete
fck characteristic compressive strength of concrete
(fck ¼ 0:67 fcu for normal strength concrete)
fcu compressive strength concrete cube
fy yield strength of steel
fscy nominal yielding strength of composite sections
fu ultimate strength of steel
h depth of composite beam sections
K0.2 initial flexural stiffness
additives were added to the fresh concrete mixture, the maximum
cube concrete strength at 28 days was 51.4 MPa with a slump of
45 mm. Al-Harthy et al. [3] presented the properties of concrete
using different concrete mixtures, the workability ranged from
16 mm to 122 mm and the percentages of dune sand replacement
was from 10% to 100%. Compared to the fully replacement, when
the fine aggregate were partially replaced, the workability im-
proved and the strength of concrete decreased with the increase
in dune sand replacement. Alhozaimy et al. [6] reported the prop-
erties of the high strength concrete under normal and autoclaved
curing using the white sand or the dune sand. Results showed that
it was possible to use the dune sand or the white sand as 30% par-
tial cement replacement under autoclaved curing. One of the ben-
efits of using dune sand as the fine aggregate is that the
construction cost will be reduced in some desert area. Although
the workability and the strength of the dune sand concrete may
not be as good as the normal concrete, the dune sand could still
be an available alternative material as the fine aggregate in con-
crete mixture if proper curing methods are taken. Filling the con-
crete consisting of dune sand into steel tubes may be a possible
way to use this kind of materials.
Concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) structures have been widely
used in high-rise buildings or bridges, and the blooming research
on the mechanical behavior of CFST structures have been carried
out in the past decades [7–11]. The mechanical behavior on the
normal CFST members under axial compression and bending were
sufficiently studied [12–15]. Recently, studies were also conducted
on the CFST stub columns with special concrete infilling, such as
the high performance plain concrete, the lightweight concrete
(a) Dune sand fine (b) Coarse aggregate
aggregate
Fig. 1. Components of concrete mixture.
353
K0.6 working stage flexural stiffness
L axial length of stub columns or beams
M bending moment
Mu ultimate flexural strength
N axial load
Nu ultimate compressive strength
t wall thickness of steel tubes
um mid-span deflection of composite beams
Wsc modulus of composite beam sections
a steel ratio (=As/Ac)
D axial shortening of stub columns  
f
n confinement factor of composite section ¼ a  f y
ck
e strain
ep peak strain related to maximum axial load
ey yield strain
/ curvature at mid-span of beams
cm flexural strength index
and the recycled aggregate concrete [16–18]. Due to the confine-
ment of the outer steel tube, CFST structures using the dune sand
concrete (using dune sand as part of the fine aggregate) are ex-
pected to have favorable performance under static or dynamic
loading.
To date, the mechanical performance of CFST members using
the concrete consisting of dune sand as part of the fine aggregate
(dune sand CFST) has not been studied yet. There’s no test data
found in literature for such kind of CFST members. Hence, the
objectives of this research are as follows: (1) to study the compres-
sive and flexural behavior of dune sand CFST members by tests. (2)
to check the feasibility of current codes in the prediction of the
stiffness and strength of dune sand CFST members. A 10% fine
aggregate replacement ratio of the dune sand is used for the prac-
tical reason in this investigation, i.e. the mass of the dune sand is
10% of the total mass of fine aggregate, and the normal curing
method can be applied in the experiments.
2. Experimental program
2.1. Specimen preparation
There are 26 stub column and beam specimens in total, including 10 dune sand
CFST stub columns, 4 stub columns with hollow steel section, 6 dune sand rein-
forcement concrete (RC) stub columns and 6 dune sand CFST beams with rectangu-
lar cross section. The components of concrete mixture were shown in Fig. 1. The test
parameters for composite column specimens were the confinement factor, the com-
pressive strength of the concrete, and the cross-sectional type. Each specimen had a
duplicated one with same parameters and loading conditions. The summary of the
dune sand CFST columns is listed in Table 1, where the confinement factor
A f f
n ¼ Acsf y ¼ a f y , As and Ac are areas of steel tubes and core concrete, respectively; a
ck ck
(c) Concrete mixture
354 W.-H. Wang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 51 (2014) 352–363

is the steel ratio.) The test parameter for beam specimens was the depth of beam
sections. The summary of the dune sand CFST beams is listed in Table 2. The total
height (H) of stub columns was 520 mm (including two 20 mm thick cover plates),
and the total length (L) of the beams was 4000 mm with a clear span of 3800 mm.
The cross-sectional profiles of those RC stub columns were equal to those of the
core concrete in CFST specimens. Four and six longitudinal reinforcing bars with
the diameter of 10 mm were assigned for the RC columns with a square or circular
cross-section, respectively. For all dune sand RC stub columns, the diameter of stir-
rups was 6 mm and the separation distance was 100 mm. The cross-sectional de-
tails can be found in Fig. 2(a and b) for the column and beam specimens,
respectively.
Cover plates with a thickness of 20 mm were used for all specimens to ensure
the integrity and the load transfer. One cover plate was welded to the tube end be-
fore the concrete placement, and the other one was welded after the solidification
and surface treatment of core concrete.
The schematic view of the test setup for beam specimens is shown in Fig. 2(b).
The load was applied on two quarter points by a rigid spread beam, and two curva-
ture gauges were placed nearby the mid-span to record the curvature of beam.
Three steel strain gauges were placed longitudinally at the mid-span of beam spec-
imens, as shown in Fig. 2(b).
For the loading protocol of the specimens, the load control method was used be-
fore the specimen yielded, where the ultimate strength is estimated by DBJ specifi-
cation tentatively. Each loading interval was 1/10 of the estimated ultimate
strength. The displacement control method was applied after the yielding with a
speed of 5 mm/min until the failure.
3. Test results
3.1. Stub columns

2.2. Material properties (1) Failure modes

The concrete with the cube strength of C50 and C80 was used in the tests. The
mixture proportions for core concrete are listed in Table 3, where the dune sand
replacement of fine aggregate was 10% for all specimens. The compressive cubic
strength (fcu) for C50 and C80 concrete was 54 MPa and 78 MPa, respectively. The
slump for C50 and C80 concrete was 220 mm and 130 mm, respectively. To ensure
the compaction of the core concrete, the fresh concrete was vibrated for 2 min using
concrete vibrator during the placement. The normal curing method is used for all
specimens.
For the steel material, the measured average yield strength (fy), the ultimate
strength (fu), the modulus of elasticity (Es) and the Poisson’s ratio (cs) are listed
in Table 4.
2.3. Test setup and instrumentation
The schematic view of the test setup for stub columns is shown in Fig. 2(a),
where the experiment was conducted on a machine with a loading capacity of
5000 kN. Strain gauges were arranged at the mid-height of the column, and two dis-
placement transducers were installed to record the axial shortening of the
specimens.
The whole test was performed in a smooth and controlled way.
Fig. 3 shows the typical failure modes of stub column specimens
subjected to compression. For the unfilled hollow steel tube spec-
imens, both inward and outward local buckling occurred on the
steel tubes, as shown in Fig. 3(a). For the composite stub columns,
only the outward local buckling was shown on steel tubes, and the
buckling position was lower than that of the hollow tubes, as
shown in Fig. 3(b). Moreover, severer local buckling was found
for the specimen with a thinner tube wall thickness. For the hollow
steel tubes with circular cross sections, both inward and outward
buckling located at about 2/3 height and near the top end of col-
umns. For composite CFST columns, the inward local buckling of
steel tubes were prevented and only the outward local buckling
was found, as shown in Fig. 3(d). Failure modes of square and cir-
cular dune sand RC columns were presented in Fig. 3(e and f). A
large amount of diagonal cracks appeared on the concrete surface,
and the concrete crushed near the loaded ends.

Table 1
Summary of stub column specimens.

No. Cross-sectional Specimen Cross-sectional dimension Confine-ment Strength of core Peak displacement Compressive
type label B(mm)  B(mm)  t (mm)/D(mm)  t (mm) factor n concrete fcu (MPa) (mm) strength (kN)
Measured Eq.
(A.1)
1 S-3-8-1 160  160  3.46 0.55 78 2.55 2011 2172a 2362
2 S-3-8-2 160  160  3.46 0.55 78 2.15 2333
B

t
3 S-3-5-1 160  160  3.46 0.79 54 1.85 1784 1798a 1833
4 B S-3-5-2 160  160  3.46 0.79 54 1.78 1812
5 S-5-8-1 160  160  5.43 0.92 78 1.92 2751 2771a 2791
6 S-5-8-2 160  160  5.43 0.92 78 2.08 2791
7 S-S-3-1 160  160  3.46 – – 1.36 577 606a –
8 S-S-3-2 160  160  3.46 – – 1.09 635
B

t
9 S-S-5-1 160  160  5.43 – – 2.23 1165 1179a –
10 B S-S-5-2 160  160  5.43 – – 2.70 1193

11 S-R-5-1 153  153 – 54 801 799a –

12 S-R-5-2 153  153 – 54 796
B

13 S-R-8-1 153  153 – 78 1420 1421a –

14 B S-R-8-2 153  153 – 78 1422

15 C-3-8-1 U160  3.46 0.58 78 5.65 2044 2057a 1926

t
16 C-3-8-2 U160  3.46 0.58 78 4.60 2069

D
17 t C-S-3-1 U160  3.46 – – 6.88 722 729a –
18 C-S-3-2 U160  3.46 – – 8.37 736

D
19 C-R-8-1 U153 – 78 1215 1192a –
20 C-R-8-2 U153 – 78 1168

D
a
Average value.
 W.-H. Wang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 51 (2014) 352–363 355

Table 2
Summary of beam specimens.

No. Cross-sectional Specimen Sectional dimension b  h  t Strength of core concrete fcu Mid-span deflection um Flexural strength Mu
type label (mm) (MPa) (mm) (kN m)
Measured Eq.
(A.2)
1 B160-1 160  160  3.46 78 192.8 59.3 59.4a 55.6
2 B160-2 160  160  3.46 78 189.7 59.5
3 t B240-1 160  240  3.46 78 197.1 136.8 140.8a 107.8
h

4 B240-2 160  240  3.46 78 197.8 144.9

5 B320-1 160  320  3.46 78 198.2 208.6 206.0a 176.2
b
6 B320-2 160  320  3.46 78 195.3 203.3
a
Average value.

S2 S2 N
S1 S3 S1 S3
Specimen Strain gauge
S4 S4
S2 S2 Strain gauge
S1 S3 S1 S3 Displacement gauge
A A
Displacement Displacement
S4 S4 gauge gauge
R=4 mm R=10 mm

B or D

3.46 mm 5.43 mm
(a) Stub column

P R=8 mm
Rigid beam

Displacement Displacement
Strain gauges A gauge
gauge
t
P1 P5
h

h
Hinge support Curvature Curvature Rolling support
P2 gauges gauges P4 b
P3
120 950 950 A 950 950 120
4040

(b) Beam
Fig. 2. Schematic view of test setup (Units: mm).

Table 3
Mixture proportions and material properties of concrete.

Core concrete Cement (kg/m3) Water (kg/m3) Sand (kg/m3) Coarse aggregate (kg/m3) Water reducer (kg/m3) 28 days fcu (MPa) Ec (N/mm2)
C50 477 181 607 1128 6.68 54 3.43  104
C80 485 144 618 1147 6.79 78 3.72  104

Table 4 were found on the core concrete except the crushed zone. Besides,
Material properties of steel. the crushed area for square CFST columns was larger than that of
circular CFST columns when the same axial shortening was
Thickness or diameter fy fu Es (N/ Poisson’s
(mm) (MPa) (MPa) mm2) ratio reached. It is due to the fact that the outer tube with circular cross
section could provide a better confinement to core concrete.
3.46 363 530 2.03  105 0.297
5.43 353 529 2.05  105 0.303
10 426 623 2.02  105 0.287 (2) Axial load (N) versus axial shortening (D) responses
6 398 491 2.10  105 0.290
The axial load (N) versus the axial shortening (D) curves for all
stub column specimens were presented in Fig. 5. For square CFST
After the test, the outer steel tube was removed to inspect the specimens, the axial load descended quickly after it reached the
failure mode of inner concrete. Fig. 4(a and b) show failure modes peak point, as shown in Fig. 5(a). When comparing the residual
of core concrete for square and circular CFST columns, respectively. strength of S-3-8 series (fcu = 78 MPa) and that of the S-3-5 series
It was found that the core concrete was crushed where the steel (fcu = 54 MPa), it was found that the strength of the core concrete
tube buckled, while the concrete integrity was well kept. No cracks only had a moderate effect on the residual bearing capacity of
356 W.-H. Wang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 51 (2014) 352–363

square CFST columns. It can also be found that the thickness of
steel tube (t) had an obvious effect on the peak displacement,
which was defined as the axial shortening corresponding to the
maximum axial load. For instance, for the S-3-8 (t = 3.46 mm)
and S-5-8 (t = 5.43 mm) series, the peak displacements were
1.22 mm and 2.47 mm (average value), respectively.
N–D curves of hollow steel tubes are shown in Fig. 5(b). The N–
D curves fell down more slowly for specimens with a thicker steel
tube, after the ultimate compressive strength was reached.
For circular CFST specimens, the load decrease was moderate
after the ultimate compressive strength was reached, as shown
in Fig. 5(c), which may due to the more effective confinement pro-
vided by the outer tube. The ultimate compressive strength of CFST
specimen was significantly higher than that of hollow steel tube.
When compared to the square specimens, the N–D curves of the
circular specimens fell down slowly after the ultimate compressive
strength was reached. Besides, the average peak displacement of
the circular specimens was about twice of that of the square
counterpart.
N-D curves of RC stub column specimens are illustrated in
Fig. 5(d). When compared to N–D curves of composite counter-
parts shown in previous figures, the axial load of RC stub columns
fell down more quickly after the ultimate compressive strength
was reached. The brittle failure occurred on the specimens using
high strength concrete. When compared to the specimens with
higher concrete strength, the load decrease is slower for specimens
with lower concrete strength.
(3) Axial load (N) versus strain (e) responses
Fig. 6 shows typical N–e curves of column specimens, where S1–
S4 are the compressive axial strain recorded by the steel strain

Inward buckling Outward buckling

Outward buckling Outward buckling

(a) Square hollow steel tubes (b) Square CFST columns

Inward buckling
Outward buckling

(c) Circular hollow steel tubes (d) Circular CFST columns

(e) Square RC columns (f) Circular RC columns

Fig. 3. Failure modes of stub columns.

Concrete crushed Concrete crushed

Outward buckling Outward buckling

(a) Circular CFST columns (b) Square CFST columns

Fig. 4. Failure modes of inner concrete.
 W.-H. Wang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 51 (2014) 352–363 357

gauges, as shown in Fig. 2. The S5 is the nominal average axial tube. However, significant differences were found on the strain of
strain, calculated from the measured axial shortening (D) normal- steel tubes, due to the different local buckling degree occurred
ized by the total height (H). Due to the composite action between on the steel tubes. The peak strain (ep) related to the maximum ax-
the core concrete and the steel tube, the core concrete of dune sand ial load was also presented out in Fig. 6. It can be seen that the
CFST columns could provide a support to the steel tube when it strength development of composite members was more quickly
buckled locally, and only outward buckling was found on the steel than that of the hollow steel tube. The peak strains of the circular

3000
S-3-5-1
3000
2400 S-3-5-2 S-S-3-1
Axial load, N (kN)

Axial load, N (kN)

2400
S-3-8-1 S-S-3-2
1800
1800 S-S-5-1
S-3-8-2
1200
S-5-8-1 1200 S-S-5-2

600 S-5-8-2 600

0 0
0 5 10 15 20 0 4 8 12 16
Axial shortening, Δ (mm) Axial shortening, Δ (mm)
(a) Square CFST columns (b) Square hollow steel tubes

2500 1600
C-3-8-1 S-R-8-1
S-R-8-2
Axial load, N (kN)

Axial load, N (kN)

2000 C-3-8-2
1200
C-S-3-1 S-R-5-1
1500
S-R-5-2
C-S-3-2 800
1000 C-R-8-1
C-R-8-2
400
500

0 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 0 2 4 6
Axial shortening, Δ (mm) Axial shortening, Δ (mm)
(c) Circular columns (d) RC columns
Fig. 5. Axial versus axial shortening (N–D) relationships of compressive stub columns.

2000 2000
ε p=3490με S1 S1
S2 ε p =5875με S2
Axial load, N (kN)
Axial load, N (kN)

1500 1500
S3 S3
S4 S4
1000 1000
S5 S5

500 500

0 0
0 20000 40000 60000 0 30000 60000 90000
Strain, ε (με) Strain, ε (με)
(a) Square CFST column (S-3-5-2) (b) Square hollow steel tube (S-S-5-2)

2500
ε p =10543με S-1
S-2
Axial load, N (kN)

2000
S-3
1500 S-4
S-5
1000

500

0
0 30000 60000 90000
Strain, ε (με)
(c) Circular CFST column (C-3-8-2)
Fig. 6. Typical axial load versus strain (N–e) curves of compressive stub columns.
358 W.-H. Wang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 51 (2014) 352–363

composite specimens were larger than those of the square speci- 0 0.95 1.9 2.85 3.8
mens, for the circular cross section confined the core concrete bet- 0
ter and delayed the strength development.
-60

3.2. Beams
-120

(1) Failure modes
Fig. 7 shows the failure modes of composite beam specimens. It
can be seen in general, the failure mode of all specimens was over-
all bending, as shown in Fig. 7(a). Fig. 7(b) shows a detailed view of
the buckling mode on the steel tube. A series of wave like outward
local buckling was found in the compressive steel tubes between
two loading points. The outward local buckling was more obvious
for the specimens with a higher beam depth. After the test, the out-
er steel tube was removed, and it was found that the core concrete
was crushed where the outward local buckling occurred, as shown
in Fig. 7(b). The typical crack pattern for core concrete of beam
specimen is illustrated in Fig. 7(c). It was found that the core con-
crete in the bottom tensile zone cracked, and both amount and
width of cracks increased with the increase of beam depth. Most
cracks extended less than half of the beam height, and some of
them extended above the axial centre line. That was due to the
neutral axis moved up when the concrete cracked [14], and this
could also be demonstrated in Fig. 12.
Fig. 8 illustrates the typical deflection curves of beam speci-
mens where Mu is the ultimate flexural strength when the tensile
fiber strain of the bottom steel reached 10,000 le. The sinusoids
with the same peak value are presented in dashed lines for com-
parison. It was found that the deflection curves of flexural speci-
mens at different load levels fitted half-sine waves well, even
when the mid-span deflections were very large.
(2) Moment (M) versus mid-span deflection (um) relationships
The moment (M) versus mid-span deflection (um) curves of the
beam specimens were presented in Fig. 9, where M is the
u m (mm)
0.36 Mu
0.62 Mu
-180
0.88 Mu
0.95 Mu
-240 Half sine waves 1.00 Mu
Measured 1.02 Mu
1.04 Mu
-300
L (m)
Fig. 8. Typical deformation curves of beam specimens (B-24-1).
recorded cross-sectional moment, um is the corresponding mid-
span deflection. It can be seen that after the steel tube walls
yielded, the cross-sectional moment (M) at the mid-span still in-
creased with the increase of midspan deflection. The maximum
cross-sectional moment rose greatly with the increase of beam
depth. The cross-sectional moment corresponding to the maxi-
mum tensile fibre strain of 10,000 le was defined as the ultimate
flexural strength (Mu) of composite beams [7] (Fig. 10). It should
be noted that the cross-sectional moment still developed when
the 10,000 le strain was reached, while the increase of the load
was less than 10%.
The typical moment (M) versus extreme fibre compressive and
tensile strains (e) relationships are shown in Fig. 10. The steel
yielding strain (ey = 1815 le) of both tensile zone and compressive
zone are presented in the figure as well. It can be seen that the
strains at different positions showed a significantly difference.
The strain on the top surface was under compression and the
strains at the mid-height and the bottom surface was under ten-
sion. It was due to the fact that the neutral axis location was moved
up when the concrete was filled.

(a) General view

Core concrete

(b) Compressive core concrete (B-320-1)

Cracks

(c) Typical concrete cracks (B-320-1)

Fig. 7. Failure modes of beam specimens.
 W.-H. Wang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 51 (2014) 352–363 359

300 300
B160-1-P2 B240-1-P2
240 B160-1-P3 240 B240-1-P3
B160-1-P4 Μu B240-1-P4

M (kN·m)
M (kN·m) 180 180
B160-2-P2 B240-2-P2
120 120
Μu B160-2-P3 B240-2-P3
60 B160-2-P4 60 B240-2-P4

0 0
0 50 100 150 200 0 50 100 150 200
u m (mm) u m (mm)
(a) Sectional height h=160 mm (b) Sectional height h=240 mm

300
B320-1-P2
240
Μu
B320-1-P3
B320-1-P4
M (kN·m)

180
B320-2-P2
120
B320-2-P3
60 B320-2-P4

0
0 50 100 150 200
u m (mm)
(c) Sectional height h=320 mm
Fig. 9. Comparison on M  um curves of flexural beams.

350 350
−εy=1815 με Top surface
−εy=1815 με Top surface
Mid-height
Midline
280 B240-1 Bottom surface 280 B320-2 Bottom surface
M (kN·m)

M (kN·m)

210
B320-1
210 B320-2
Μu B240-1 Μu
B240-1 B240-2
140 140
Μu Μu B240-2
B160-1
B160-1 B160-2 εy=1815 με
70 70
Μu Μu B160-2
εy
0 0
-20000 -10000 0 10000 20000 -20000 -10000 0 10000 20000
Tensile ε (με) Compressive Tensile ε (με) Compressive
(a) Contradistinctive specimen-1 (b) Contradistinctive specimen-2
Fig. 10. Moment (M) versus longitudinal strain (e) of steel tube wall at the mid-span of flexural beams.

350 160
B160-1 h
Sectional heigth, h (mm)

280
B160-2 120 0
Neutral
axis
M (kN·m)

210
B240-1
80
Midline
140 B240-2 My/3
My*2/3
B320-1 40 My
70
Mu*0.95
B320-2 Mu
0 0
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 -12000 -6000 0 6000 12000
φ (1/m) Axial strain, ε (με)

Fig. 11. Moment (M) versus curvature (/) curves of composite beams. Fig. 12. Steel strain distributions at mid-span (B160-1).
360 W.-H. Wang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 51 (2014) 352–363

1.8 1.8

1.4 1.4

MSI
1
SI
1.0

0.6 0.6

0.2 0.2
S-3-8 S-3-5 S-5-8 C-3-8 B160 B240 B320

(a) CFST stub columns (b) CFST Beams

Fig. 13. Strength index.

N M
Nu
tan θ 2 = 0.01 tan θ1

Sectional moment
0.85Nu
θ2
Axial load

0.6Mu

θ1
φK φ 0.01 φ
dNu d0.85Nu Δ
Axial Shortening Curvature at midspan
(a) Stub columns (b) Flexural beams
Fig. 14. Calculation of ductility index.

2.6
CFST
2.2
HST
1.8 RC
DI

1.4

0.6

0.2
S-3-5 S-5-8 S-S-3 S-S-5 C-S-3 S-R-5
S-R-8
C-R-8
S-3-8 C-3-8

(a) Stub column specimens

24

18
MDI

12

0
B160 B240 B320

(b) Flexural beam specimens

Fig. 15. Ductility index.
 W.-H. Wang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 51 (2014) 352–363 361

Table 5
Calculated results of compressive of composite stub columns (kN).

No. Specimen label Measured results (Average) AIJ AIJ/measured AISC AISC/measured EC4 EC4/measured DBJ (Eq. (A.1)) DBJ/measured
1 S-3-8-1 2172 2141 0.986 2141 0.986 2380 1.096 2362 1.087
2 S-3-8-2
3 S-3-5-1 1798 1683 0.936 1683 0.936 1841 1.024 1833 1.019
4 S-3-5-2
5 S-5-8-1 2771 2471 0.892 2471 0.892 2698 0.974 2791 1.007
6 S-5-8-2
7 C-3-8-1 2057 1848 0.898 1807 0.878 2109 1.025 1926 0.936
8 C-3-8-2
Mean 0.928 0.923 1.030 1.013
Standard deviation 0.043 0.049 0.050 0.062

3500 300

3000 Measured Calculated Measured

250
Calculated
2500

M (kN·m)
200
(kN)

2000
150
1500
N

100
1000

500 50

0 0
S-3-8 S-3-5 S-5-8 C-3-8 B160 B240 B320
(a) Stub columns (b) Flexural beams

Fig. 16. Comparison between measured and calculated results.

4. Analysis and discussion

M
4.1. Strength index
Mu
Sectional moment

(1) Stub columns

0.6 Mu
K0.6
0.2 Mu
K0.2
φ were illustrated in Fig. 13(a), where it can be found that the
Curvature at mid-span
Fig. 17. Calculation of flexural stiffness.
Moment (M) versus curvature (/) curves of composite beams
with different section depths are shown in Fig. 11, where the cur-
vature (/) was recorded by two curvature gauges. It can be found
that a similar pattern was found for specimens with different
parameters. The M–/ curves were nearly linear before the
mid-span sectional moments (M) reached about 0.6Mu. The
development of curvature slowed down after the specimen
yielded. All the dune sand CFST beam specimens exceeded a cur-
vature of 0.2.
Typical strain distributions of the beam cross sections at dif-
ferent load levels are illustrated in Fig. 12. It could be found that
the cross-sectional steel strain distributions fit the plane section
assumption well during the loading process. The location of the
neutral axis was near the mid-height of the beam before the
specimen yielded, and it moved up as the bending deflection
increased.
The strength index (SI) of composite stub columns can be de-
fined as [19]:
Nmax
SI ¼ ð1Þ
Ac fck þ As fy
where Nmax is the measured maximum value of the compressive
load. The strength index (SI) thus calculated for tested stub columns
strength index (SI) for all square dune sand CFST stub columns were
higher than 1.0 due to the confinement provided by the outer steel
tube. For the columns with the square cross section, the confine-
ment factors (n) for specimen S-3-8 series, S-3-5 series and S-5-8
series were 0.55, 0.79 and 0.92, respectively, where n was defined
as As fy =Ac fck [19]. It can be found that for the square dune sand CFST
column, the SI increased with the increase of the confinement fac-
tor. For the columns with circular cross section, the confinement
factor was 0.58, while the corresponding SI was 1.3. It was due to
the good confinement of the circular steel tube to the core concrete.
(2) Beams
For the beam specimens, the moment strength index of flexural
beams is defined as:
Mu
MSI ¼ ð2Þ
As  fy  zy
where Mu is the ultimate flexural strength corresponding to the
maximum tensile fibre strain of 0.01; As is the area of tensile steel
tube (calculated as one half of the total area of the steel tube); fy
362 W.-H. Wang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 51 (2014) 352–363

is the yield strength of steel tubes; zy is the equivalent distance be-
tween the centroid of the tensile steel tubes and that of the com-
pressive steel tubes. Fig. 13(b) illustrated the MSI thus obtained
for the beam specimens with different sectional depths. It was
found that the MSI for all composite specimens were significantly
larger than 1, for the contribution of the in-filled concrete.
4.2. Ductility index
(1) Stub columns
The structural ductility represents the ability to undergo large
plastic deformation without significant strength degradation. A
ductility index is introduced for the dune sand CFST stub column
as follows [20]:
dð0:85Nu Þ
DI ¼
dðN u Þ
where d(Nu) is the axial deformation corresponding to the ultimate
compressive strength; d(0.85Nu) is the axial deformation when the
load decreased to 85% of the ultimate compressive strength, as
shown in Fig. 14(a). Fig. 15(a) shows the ductility index (DI) for
the dune sand CFST stub columns, the hollow steel tubular stub col-
umns and the RC stub columns. It was found that for square CFST
column specimens, the ductility index (DI) decreased with the in-
crease of core concrete strength. However, the DI increased with
the increase of steel tube thickness. For circular CFST column spec-
imens, the DI was much higher than that of the square counterpart.
It was due to the circular steel tube provide a better confinement to
the core concrete. Fig. 15(a) also illustrated the ductility index of the
hollow steel tubes and the dune sand RC stub columns. As the con-
crete strength increased, the ductility index for RC stub columns fell
down significantly due to the brittle failure of the high strength
concrete. For the advantages of composite effect, the ductility of
dune sand CFST stub columns was better than that of hollow steel
tubes or RC stub columns.
(2) Beams
For the beam specimens, the load kept increasing after the spec-
imen yielded. The ductility index defined by Eq. (2) was not
adapted. The ductility index (MDI) for flexural beams was defined
herein, the MDI was calculated from the curvatures of the flexural
beams (deformation behavior). The ductility index of the rectangu-
lar dune sand CFST beam was defined as:
/0:01
MDI ¼ ð4Þ
/K
where /K is the mid-span curvature corresponding to 0.6Mu, /0.01 is
the mid-span curvature when the tangent stiffness decreased to 1%
of the initial tangent stiffness from the moment (M) versus curva-
ture (/) curves, as shown in Fig. 14(b). The MDIs for the tested flex-
ural beams are illustrated in Fig. 15(b). It was found that the
ð3Þ
ductility index for composite flexural beams increased with the
cross-sectional depth when the depth changed from 160 mm to
240 mm, and decreased when the depth changed from 240 mm to
320 mm. One possible reason is that, for the specimens with the
cross-sectional depth of 320 mm, severer bucklings were shown
on the steel tube. Due to the limitation of the test parameters and
the amount of specimens, further study should be carried out on
the ductility index for dune sand CFST beams in the future.
4.3. Ultimate strength and flexural stiffness prediction
In general, the behavior of CFST stub columns and beams using
dune sand as 10% of fine aggregate are quite similar to the corre-
sponding normal concrete-filled steel tubes. Therefore the follow-
ing existing codes for normal CFST structures, e.g. DBJ/T13-51-
2010[21], AIJ-2008 [22], EC4-2004 [23] and AISC-360-10 [24] were
adopted tentatively to predict the compressive strength of the CFST
stub columns and the flexural strength of the beams for dune sand
CFST members.

Table 6
Calculated results of flexural strength of composite beams (kN m).

No. Specimen label Measured results (Average) AIJ AIJ/measured AISC AISC/measured EC4 EC4/measured DBJ (Eq.A.2) DBJ/measured
1 B-160-1 59.4 55.5 0.934 55.5 0.934 56.1 0.944 55.6 0.936
2 B-160-2
3 B-240-1 140.8 103.4 0.734 103.4 0.734 104.7 0.744 107.8 0.766
4 B-240-2
5 B-320-1 206.0 164.2 0.797 164.4 0.798 166.7 0.809 176.2 0.855
6 B-320-2
Mean 0.822 0.822 0.832 0.852
Standard deviation 0.102 0.102 0.102 0.085

Table 7
Calculated results of flexural stiffness (103 kN m2).

No. Specimen label Measured results AIJ AIJ/ AISC AISC/ EC4 EC4/ DBJ DBJ/
(K0.6) measured (K0.6) measured (K0.6) measured (K0.6) measured
K0.2 K0.6
1 B-160-1 2.50 2.33 2.28 2.16 2.16 1.000 3.16 1.463 2.91 1.347 2.86 1.324
2 B-160-2 2.16 2.04
3 B-240-1 5.38 5.29 5.14 5.18 5.90 1.139 9.32 1.799 8.48 1.637 8.36 1.614
4 B-240-2 5.20 5.22
5 B-320-1 9.82 9.21 6.65 7.48 12.3 1.644 20.4 2.727 18.5 2.473 18.2 2.433
6 B-320-2 8.59 8.31
Mean 1.261 1.996 1.819 1.790
Standard 0.277 0.535 0.477 0.470
deviation
 W.-H. Wang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 51 (2014) 352–363
(1) Stub columns
Han [7] has presented formulae to predict the ultimate com-
pressive strength of normal concrete-filled steel tubes with rectan-
gular and circular cross sections, which have been adopted in
various Chinese local technical specifications including DBJ/T13-
51-2010 (DBJ code). The calculated results using these formulae
were listed in Table 5, and plotted in Fig. 16(a). The calculated re-
sults using other codes were also listed in Table 5. The local buck-
ling reduction was included in the codes of EC4 [23] and AISC [24],
while the classification methods of hollow steel section were dif-
ferent in AISC and EC4 codes. The confinement of the outer steel
wall was considered by the confinement factor n in the DBJ code
[21], and generally good agreements were achieved between calcu-
lated and measured results, as shown in Table 5. Mean values and
standard deviations of calculated results ratio were also listed in
Table 5. It can be found that the best predicted mean value was
1.013 calculated by DBJ code, and the standard deviation of various
design codes varied from 0.043 to 0.062.
(2) Beams
Han [7] proposed equations for the prediction of flexural
strength for common CFST beams, which were also adopted for
dune sand CFST beams. The comparison between the measured
and the calculated results was shown in Fig. 16(b). It can be seen
that generally good agreement was achieved, while the predicted
results were conservative when h = 240 mm and 320 mm. The cal-
culated results of composite beams with various codes were listed
in Table 6, where it can be seen that the calculated results from all
codes are conservative when compared to the measured ones.
Within the limited experimental data, the DBJ prediction gave
the closest results with a mean value of 0.852, and the standard
deviation was 0.085.
The measured flexural stiffness for composite beams at 0.2Mu
(K0.2) or 0.6Mu (K0.6) were shown in Fig. 17 and the calculated ones
were listed in Table 7, where the flexural stiffness at 0.2Mu and
0.6Mu represented the initial flexural stiffness and working stage
flexural stiffness, respectively [7]. In general, the working stage
flexural stiffness was lower than the initial one. The measured re-
sults (K0.6) were a little lower than the calculated one from differ-
ent design codes. The AIJ code gave the best prediction, and the
mean value and standard deviation were 1.261 and 0.277,
respectively.
5. Conclusions
This study is an attempt to investigate the behavior of concrete-
filled steel tubular (CFST) stub columns and beams using dune
sand as 10% replacement of the fine aggregate. The following con-
clusions can be drawn based on the limited analysis reported in the
current paper.
(1) The concrete mixture using the dune sand as part of the fine
aggregate will have a low slump and fluidity. However, the
10% fine aggregate replacement ratio of the dune sand was
available for the in-filled concrete of steel tubes, when suffi-
cient vibration and proper curing method is applied.
(2) The dune sand concrete could work well with the outer steel
tube in CFST stub columns and beams, no visible failure was
found on the interface between the steel and concrete.
(3) The failure modes and the behavior of dune sand CFST spec-
imens were similar to those of normal CFST members. The
strength index for square dune sand CFST stub columns
363
increased with the confinement factor, and the ductility
indexes of CFST stub columns were better than those of RC
columns. Higher strength index and ductility index could
be achieved for the CFST stub columns with circular cross
section when compared to the counterparts with square
cross section, for the circular tube could provide a better
confinement to the core concrete.
(4) The current codes could be used tentatively in the strength
and stiffness prediction of dune sand CFST structures.
Acknowledgements
The research reported in the paper is supported by the Tsinghua
Initiative Scientific Research Program (No. 2011THZ03). The
authors thank Rechsand Science & Technology Group for providing
the concrete materials using the dune sand and for the preparation
of test specimens.
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