Seismic behavior and strength of square tube confined reinforced-concrete (STRC) columns

A steel tube confined reinforced-concrete (STRC) column is an ordinary RC column where most of the lateral ties are in the form of a thin steel tube. Twenty-three square tube confined concrete stub columns were tested in this paper under cyclic or monotonic axial compression. A design equation to calculate the axial load strength of square tube confined concrete stub columns is proposed in this paper. A total of five beam-columns have been studied under combined axial compression and lateral cyclic loads. The test results indicate that the columns confined with square steel tubes exhibit much higher flexural strength, displacement ductility, and energy dissipation ability than common RC columns confined with lateral ties. Fiber models were also developed for STRC beam-columns in this paper.