All the specimens were tested to failure using the UTM of 5000-kN capacity. Before the test was conducted, the specimen was centrally positioned in the rig to ensure that the applied compressive load was concentric. Each specimen was tested to failure under axial concentric loading.
5.4. Results and discussions
The failure mechanism of the specimens was identified as the material yielding of steel hollow sections and the crushing of core concrete. The welds at the four corners of the specimen remained intact before the critical load. Most of the specimens demonstrated good post-yield behaviour. The tested specimens with various cross-sectional aspect ratios had shown different failure modes. Material yielding occurred almost simultaneously at every face of the steel hollow sections for columns with the H/B ratio equal to unity. For specimens with H/B ratios of 2.0, the yielding was extensive and occurred firstly on the broader faces of the steel hollow sections. Fig. 2 illustrates the failure modes of specimens with H/B ratios of 1.0 and 2.0. Most specimens showed large axial shortening before complete collapse. …show more content…
However, the specimens with fcu = 56.4 MPa (N/mm2) were found to be less ductile in comparison with those with fcu = 35.5 MPa (N/mm2). As depicted in Figs. 2 (b) the failure behavior of specimens (3.2mm thickness) with fcu = 56.4 MPa (N/mm2) was associated with smaller ultimate strain. Figure 3 illustrates the typical axial load–strain curves for the specimens with fcu =35.5 MPa (N/mm2) and 56.4 MPa (N/mm2), respectively, where as no such difference was observed in 4.8mm thick specimens. The critical loads of the tested specimens are summarized in Table