AN ANALYTICAL STUDY ON EFFECT OF LOADING TIP SHAPES ON FLEXURAL BEHAVIOR OF VACANT AND CONCRETE-FILLED STEEL TUBULAR MEMBERS SUBJECTED TO CONCENTRATED TRANSVERSE LOADS

Abstract

Tsunami flotsam attacked many steel buildings in the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake. Steel buildings construct popularly by using tubular columns. One of the difficulties to evaluate the strength of steel tubular member against the collision of Tsunami flotsam is local deformation caused by the collision, which degrades the overall strength. Furthermore, contact surface shape of collision object, for example, sharp or flat introduces variation of local deformation and the corresponding strength reduction. The filling concrete into tubular members (CFT) would be alternative to overcome the disadvantages. Therefore, we performed static FEM analysis by using the program MSC Marc. The collision by Tsunami flotsam categorizes as the low velocity collision, so that the static analysis may be applicable to investigate the above topics. We discuss that the overall strength degradation by local deformation and the effect of loading tip shapes for vacant steel tubular members and CFT members.