Numerical simulation of axial compressive behavior of circular composite columns made of NSC filled in prefabricated UHPC tube

Abstract

Due to superior strength and durability compared to the conventional concrete, Ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) was considered as a potential material to produce prefabricated tube for filling normal strength concrete (NSC) to create a novel composite columns (UHPC-NSC). The prefabricated UHPC tube with high integrity can replace conventional tube such as steel tube, fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) tube to confined the NSC core. T here is a need to study on UHPC-NSC columns to accelerate the practical application. Therefore, this paper deals with finite element model (FEM) investigation of UHPC-NSC circular columns made of NSC filled in prefabricated UHPC tube subjected to axial compression on only NSC core. The FEM was built using ABAQUS software to validate some collected test results. The material models for confined NSC and UHPC jacket were proposed to simulate the behavior of two materials. The FEM gave a good agreement when comparing with the previous test results in the predictions of failure pattern, load-strain curves, and ultimate load.
Keywords: composite columns, NSC, UHPC, FEM, ABAQUS, axial \compression.