Ultimate compressive strength predictions of CFT considering the nonlinear Poisson effect

Concrete-filled steel tubes are among the most efficient compressive structural members because the strength of the concrete is enhanced given that the surrounding steel tube confines the concrete laterally and the steel tube is restrained with regard to inward deformation due to the concrete existing inside. Accurate estimations of the ultimate compressive strength of CFT are important for efficient designs of CFT members. In this study, an analytical procedure that directly formulates the interaction between the concrete and steel tube by considering the nonlinear Poisson effect and stress-strain curve of the concrete including the confinement effect is proposed. The failure stress of concrete and von-Mises failure yield criterion of steel were used to consider multi-dimensional stresses. To verify the prediction capabilities of the proposed analytical procedure, 99 circular CFT experimental data instances from other studies were used for a comparison with AISC, Eurocode 4, and other researchers’ predictions. From the comparison, it was revealed that the proposed procedure more accurately predicted the ultimate compressive strength of a circular CFT regardless of the range of the design variables, in this case the concrete compressive strength, yield strength of the steel tube and diameter relative to the thickness ratio of the tube.