Engineering Structures 56 (2013) 165–181

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Engineering Structures
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/engstruct

Fire performance of concrete filled stainless steel tubular columns

Lin-Hai Han a,⇑, Feng Chen a,1, Fei-Yu Liao a, Zhong Tao b, Brian Uy b
a
Department of Civil Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, PR China
b
Institute for Infrastructure Engineering, University of Western Sydney, Penrith, NSW 2751, Australia

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper investigates the experimental behaviour of five full-scale circular and square concrete filled
Received 20 November 2011 stainless steel tubular (CFSST) columns subjected to axial compression under standard fire test condi-
Revised 4 April 2013 tions. Grade S30408 (EN 1.4301 or AISI 304) austenitic stainless steel was used for the outer tubes and
Accepted 2 May 2013
self-consolidating concrete for the core concrete. The test parameters include load level, sectional type
and dimension. Sectional temperature distribution, axial deformation and fire resistance of the specimens
were measured and reported in this paper and a finite element model was presented to further study the
Keywords:
failure mechanisms of CFSST columns at elevated temperatures. Finally, by comparing the deformation
Concrete filled stainless steel tubular
(CFSST) columns
developments and failure modes of CFSST columns with those of concrete filled steel tubular columns
Fire resistance comprised of carbon steel, differences of fire performance between the two types of composite columns
Fire tests were identified.
Finite element model Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
As stainless steel is being widely used in structural engineering,
concrete filled stainless steel tubular (CFSST) columns are thus
attracting the attention of researchers. It is well-known that there
are several benefits for stainless steel in structural applications
over conventional carbon steel and low alloy steels. One of the ben-
efits is that stainless steel has favourable appearance. In addition,
stainless steel has better ductility and higher post-yielding
strength. Most important of all, stainless steel has a quite good cor-
rosion resistance, which could lead to reasonable life-cycle cost
saving in comparison to carbon steel, especially for offshore steel
structures [1]. It is expected that filling hollow stainless steel col-
umns with concrete can reduce the use of stainless steel and thus
the cost of the structure itself, whilst making the most of the above
advantages of stainless steel.
One of the most important factors that need to be considered in
designing CFSST columns is fire resistance. A comparison between
stainless and carbon steel at elevated temperatures showed that
stainless steel has better high temperature characteristics [2].
Hence, a CFSST column is expected to behave better than a conven-
tional concrete filled steel tubular (CFST) member under a same
fire condition.
In the past, a number of experimental studies had been con-
ducted on the fire performance of CFST structures, such as Lie
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +86 10 62797067.
E-mail addresses: lhhan@tsinghua.edu.cn, lhhanqw@gmail.com (L.-H. Han).
1
Present address: China Southwest Architectural Design and Research Institute
Corporation Limited, PR China.
and Chabot [3], Chabot and Lie [4], Sakumoto et al. [5], Kodur
and Lie [6,7], Han et al. [8–11], Kodur and Latour [12], Kim et al.
[13], Lu et al. [14], Yang et al. [15]. The fire behaviour of CFST col-
umns with or without fire protections, filled with plain concrete or
reinforced concrete, subjected to axial or eccentric loading, under
uniform or non-uniform fire exposure, was understood through
both tests and numerical analysis. Fire performance of reinforced
concrete beam to CFST column frames was also investigated. Re-
cent experimental studies on the response of CFSST stub columns
and slender columns under axial loading or combined action of ax-
ial force and bending moment at ambient temperatures have also
been conducted [16–20]. However, it seems that limited studies
have been conducted on the behaviour of CFSST columns subjected
to fire.
This paper studies the fire performance of CFSST columns. Fire
tests of circular and square full-scale CFSST columns under axial
loading conditions have been performed and the results are pre-
sented in this paper. In the current test program: (1) Both circular
and square columns were tested; (2) Load level (nF) ranged from
0.15 to 0.45, where load level is expressed as:
NF
nF ¼ ð1Þ
Nu
where NF is the applied axial compression load; Nu is the load-bear-
ing capacity of the column at ambient temperature; (3) Full-scale
specimens were tested and the largest cross-sectional dimension
was 630 mm. The main work reported in this paper includes three
parts: (1) to report new fire testing data on CFSST columns; (2) to
introduce a numerical model to simulate the fire performance of

0141-0296/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2013.05.005
166 L.-H. Han et al. / Engineering Structures 56 (2013) 165–181
Nomenclature
B width of the square steel tube
D diameter of the circular steel tube
Es modulus of elasticity of steel
fcu cubic compression strength of concrete
hj heat contact conductance, in W/m2 K
L length of the column
n strain hardening coefficient of stainless steel
nF load level
NF applied axial compressive load
Nu load bearing capacity of the composite column at ambi-
ent condition
R fire resistance, in min
t fire duration time, in min
ts wall thickness of the steel tube
CFSST columns; (3) to analyse the differences of fire performance
between CFST columns and CFSST columns.
It should be noted that, to determine the axial load level (nF) of a
CFSST specimen, the load-bearing capacity Nu in Eq. (1) was calcu-
lated by the finite element model presented in Section 4 of this
paper, where the measured material strengths were used. How-
ever, a predicted value of Nu from a certain design code would be
generally much smaller since design material strengths need to
be converted from measured ones divided by material partial
safety factors. Therefore, a larger design value of nF than the actual
level will be obtained for a specimen. For example, if the Chinese
code DBJ/T 13-51-2010 [21] is used to calculate Nu, the axial load
levels of the test specimens would approximately lie within the
range of 0.3–0.7. Another factor to be considered is that CFSST col-
umns are usually expected to be used without any fire insulation to
keep its attractive architecture appearance. A lower axial load level
is desirable for obtaining the required fire resistance. Therefore, the
axial load level chosen in the tests is in the range of 0.15–0.45,
which may be lower than the axial load level usually used for nor-
mal composite columns in engineering practice.
2. Experimental program
Five full-scale CFSST columns, including three square specimens
and two circular specimens, were tested under standard fire test
conditions. Grade S30408 austenitic stainless steel specified in
[22] and self-consolidating concrete were adopted to construct
the outer tubes and the core concrete, respectively. The grade of
the stainless steel was equivalent to that of EN 1.4301 or AISI
304. The test parameters include sectional type (square and circu-
lar), load level (nF, from 0.15 to 0.45) and sectional dimension
(from 300 to 630 mm). The details of all columns are presented
in Table 1, where B is the overall width of a square specimen, D
is the diameter of a circular specimen, ts is the tube thickness.
2.1. Specimen preparation
2.1.1. Material properties
The stainless steel properties of circular and square sections
were determined through tensile coupon tests. For each type of
section, three coupons were prepared in accordance with the Chi-
nese standard GB/T228-2002 [23]. For the square sections, the cou-
pons were taken from the flat surfaces of each tube size. Table 2
shows the average 0.2% proof strength (r0.2), ultimate strength
(ru), Young’s modulus (Es), Poisson’s ratio (ls), elongation (d) as
T temperature, in °C
Ts average temperature at the interface of the composite
column, in °C
a steel ratio
ac heat convective coefficient
r0.2 0.2% proof strength of stainless steel
ru ultimate strength of stainless steel
d elongation
D axial deformation
em emissivity
k Slenderness ratio
ls Poisson’s ratio of steel
well as strain hardening coefficient (n) for each type of stainless
steel.
Self-consolidating concrete (SCC) was used as the core concrete
in all columns. The mix proportions were as follows: cement:
340 kg/m3; fly ash: 60 kg/m3; water: 165 kg/m3; sand: 822 kg/m3;
coarse aggregate: 920 kg/m3; additional high-range water reducer
(HRWR): 6.2 kg/m3. The average cube compressive strength (fcu)
and elastic modulus (Ec) of the concrete at 28 days are 53.2 MPa
and 37,305 N/mm2, respectively, whilst at the time of column spec-
imen tests fcu is 64.2 MPa.
2.1.2. Specimens fabrication
Cold-formed tubes were used for circular specimens. To fabri-
cate square tubes, stainless steel sheeting was cut and pressed to
form a U-shaped channel first. Then two channels were welded to-
gether using butt welds to form a square tube. The internal radius
of rounded corners for the square tubes is 15 mm for specimens
S300-0.15 and S300-0.3, and 30 mm for specimen S600-0.3.
Steel plates were welded to both ends of each tube. To ensure
the machining accuracy, centering and perpendicularity of the
end plates were given special attention. A total of eight circular
holes with 20 mm in diameter, located at 100 mm away from the
top or the bottom of the tube, were drilled in the tube wall. They
were used as vent holes for steam produced from the water in
the core concrete under elevated temperatures.
To measure the temperatures of concrete at different locations
in the cross section (as shown in Fig. 1), three or four thermocou-
ples were mounted at the mid-height of each specimen before
casting concrete. The SCC was cast from the top without any vibra-
tion. After curing concrete for 2 weeks under natural condition, a
layer of high-strength epoxy mortar was applied on the top of each
specimen to compensate the minor shrinkage of concrete during
curing. The top hole was then strengthened by welding a steel plug
to ensure the flushness of the top surface. No fire insulation system
was applied to the exterior of the stainless steel tubes during fire
testing.
2.2. Test apparatus
The tests were carried out in a column furnace, as shown in
Fig. 2a, in Tianjin Fire Research Institute, China. The furnace cham-
ber has a floor area of 3 m  3 m and a height of 4 m. Twelve ther-
mocouples are mounted on four sides of the insulating wall of the
chamber to measure the temperatures, and the average value of
the measured temperatures can be used to control the chamber
temperature to match the desired temperature–time curve. The
 L.-H. Han et al. / Engineering Structures 56 (2013) 165–181
Table 1
Information of CFSST specimens.
No. Specimen Sectional dimension B(D)  ts Load NF
label (mm  mm) (kN)
1 S300-0.15 h315  5 940
2 S300-0.3 h315  5 1880
3 S600-0.3 h630  10 7870
4 C300-0.3 s300  5 1400
5 C300-0.45 s300  5 2100
total height of the CFSST column was 3.6 m. The height which was
exposed to fire was 3 m, and the top 0.3 m and the bottom 0.3 m of
the specimen were protected by asbestos, as shown in Fig. 2b.
A servo-controlled hydraulic jack with a capacity of 1500 ton-
nes, located at the bottom of the furnace, applied an axial load
(NF) onto the specimen. A force transducer connected to the jack
was used to control the magnitude of the axial load (NF) and kept
the load constant during the experiment. The axial deformation of
the specimen was determined by measuring the displacement of
the jack using a displacement transducer.
2.3. Test conditions and procedures
The specimens were installed in the furnace and both end plates
of each specimen were secured to the top and the bottom loading
plates in the furnace chamber with bolts. Spherical hinges were
used to provide pinned boundary conditions. The thermocouples
and displacement transducer were connected to the data collecting
system located outside the furnace.
The axial load (NF) was applied to the specimens 30 min before
igniting. The temperatures in the chamber were controlled in
accordance with temperature versus fire exposure time relation-
ship prescribed in [24]. The failure criteria specified in [24] were
adopted in the tests, i.e. either the axial shortening exceeding
0.01H mm or the deformation rate exceeding 0.003H mm/min in
the failure stage, where H is the length of the specimen in mm.
3. Test results and discussions
3.1. Failure modes
The observed failure modes of the test specimens are shown in
Fig. 3a1–e1. The maximum fire duration time of the furnace is 4 h.
All the column specimens reached a fire resistance less than 4 h ex-
cept specimen S300-0.15 which still had the ability to sustain the
axial load at the end of 4 h’ fire exposure and did not reach its fire
resistance at the end of testing. All the CFSST specimens were ob-
served to fail in compressive mode.
For CFSST specimens with square sections, local buckling along
the whole length and weld fracture of the tubes were observed
during the experiments, as shown in Fig. 3a1–c1. The higher the
load level of a specimen, the more obvious of the local buckling
was. Weld fracture was observed at the place where severe local
buckling occurred. For the specimen S600-0.3, the weld fracture
length was as long as 1.4 m where the inner core concrete was di-
rectly exposed to fire and thus spalled severely. Although the weld
strength is expected to be higher than that of the base metal, the
weld metal is usually less ductile than the base material. When
the tube developed severe outward local buckling, a weld fracture
was likely to occur if the weld could not resist the significant
deformation.
For CFSST specimens with circular sections, local buckling of the
tubes was also observed. However, different from that of the
167
Load level Measured fire resistance Predicted fire resistance (min) Failure
nF (min) mode
EC4 DBJ Kodur
(2004) (2010) (2007)
0.15 >240 – 107 107 –
0.3 148 75 42.7 75 Compression
0.3 220 – 53.4 209 Compression
0.3 132 70 44.3 88 Compression
0.45 67 45 27.8 72 Compression
square specimens only one major elephant foot bulge was found
at the mid-height of the column. Meanwhile, another less obvious
bulge was observed at a quarter of the total height of the column
away from the top end, as shown in Fig. 3d1 and e1.
After the tests, the outer tubes of the specimens were removed
to observe the failure appearance of the core concrete. For square
specimens, the core concrete and the stainless steel tube separated
with each other at places where the local buckling had occurred, as
shown in Fig. 4a–c. Concrete spalling was observed at the corners
of the core concrete. For the specimens S300-0.3 and S600-0.3,
obvious longitudinal cracks on the surface of the concrete were
found and the concrete was crushed at the place where the con-
crete was exposed to fire directly due to the weld fracture of the
steel tube. This is not the case for the specimen S300-0.15 since
it had not been tested to failure. For circular specimens, severe
cracks and crushing of the core concrete were found at the place
where less obvious bulge was observed, as shown in Fig. 4d and
e. At other places of the core concrete, no obvious damage was ob-
served in the concrete. To some extent, the integrity of the concrete
in circular specimens was better than that in square specimens.
For columns under higher load levels, such as specimens C300-
0.45 and S300-0.3, more obvious local buckling or weld fracture of
the steel tube was observed than those of specimens C300-0.3 and
S300-0.15. The core concrete in C300-0.45 and S300-0.3 was also
crushed more significantly and slanting cracks were found at a
quarter and a half of the total length of the columns away from
the top end, respectively.
For the column with the biggest sectional dimension, i.e. spec-
imen S600-0.3, fewer and more obvious local bulges were observed
and the core concrete was more fragile to be crushed at these
locations.
3.2. Temperature
The measured concrete temperatures (T) as a function of fire
exposure time (t) of the CFSST columns are shown in Fig. 5, where
the positions of the measurements are presented in Fig. 1. Point 1
represents the outer surface of the core concrete. For the specimen
S600-0.3, Point 4 is the center point of the core concrete, and Points
2 and 3 are 3B/8 and B/4 away from Point 4, respectively. For other
specimens, only three thermocouples were used, where Points 1, 2
and 3 are in the same locations as those of Points 1, 3 and 4 in the
specimen S600-0.3.
For the specimens S300-0.3 and C300-0.3, the T–t curve for
Point 1 drops sharply after a fire exposure of about 20 min then
rises again gradually, possibly due to the separation of the outer
tube and the core concrete and thus the invasion of the steam into
the gap between the steel tube and concrete. It can be seen from
Fig. 5 that the heating process of the inner concrete can be gener-
ally divided into three stages. In the first stage, concrete tempera-
ture elevated from the ambient temperature to approximately
100 °C. In the second stage, concrete temperature kept stable in
the range of 100–120 °C. This is mainly because the free water in
168 L.-H. Han et al. / Engineering Structures 56 (2013) 165–181

Table 2 Fig. 8 shows the influence of load level (nF) on the fire resistance
Properties of stainless steel. (R) of CFSST columns. For square CFSST columns, the fire resistance
Section r0.2 (MPa) n Es (N/mm2) ru (MPa) d (%) ls decreased from a value higher than 240 to 148 min when the load
s300  5 451 6.1 210,000 858.5 40.7 0.300 level increased from 0.15 to 0.3. The same trend was also observed
h315  5 395 4.0 205,000 811.7 44.2 0.284 in circular CFSST columns, i.e., the fire resistance dropped from 132
h630  10 346 7.5 212,000 >715.3 >35.7 0.281 to 67 min when the load level increased from 0.3 to 0.45.

4. Finite element analysis

concrete absorbed the heat for evaporation and the migration of
the steam also took away heat. In the third stage, most of the water
in concrete had evaporated and the concrete temperatures in-
creased almost linearly.
3.3. Axial deformation and fire resistance
Finite element (FE) model was established to analyse the behav-
iour of CFSST columns subjected to axial loading and fire by adopt-
ing Program ABAQUS. A sequentially coupled thermal-stress
analysis procedure was adopted for the heat transfer analysis
and structural analysis. Details of this analysis procedure were
similar to those presented by Lu et al. [14].

Fig. 6 shows the axial deformation (D) of the specimens as a
function of fire exposure time (t). Similar to that of conventional
CFST columns exposed to fire, the axial deformation of CFSST col-
umns generally consists of three stages: expansion, gradual con-
traction and sharp contraction. All the specimens reached the
third stage except specimen S300-0.15, which was able to sustain
the axial load even after 4 h fire exposure. For specimens S600-0.3
and C300-0.45, no initial expansion was observed because the load
applied on them was relatively high.
Fig. 7 illustrates the influence of sectional dimension on the fire
resistance (R) of CFSST columns. As can be seen, the sectional
dimension has a significant effect on the fire resistance, which is
similar to conventional CFST columns. With a same load level
(nF), the fire resistance (R) increased from 148 to 220 min when
the overall width of the square CFSST column increased from 315
to 630 mm.
4.1. Thermal response analysis
The thermal response of a CFSST column exposed to fire is a
transient heat transfer process, in which the heat of fire is trans-
mitted to the exterior surface of the stainless tube by convection
and radiation and into the inner concrete by conductance [25].
For the standard fire condition, a heat convective coefficient ac of
25 W/m2 K and an emissivity em of 0.4 is proposed in [26] for stain-
less steel. Based on test results, modified values for the heat con-
vective coefficient and emissivity were proposed by Gardner and
Ng [2] through sensitivity analysis. The modified values, i.e.
ac = 35 W/m2 K and em = 0.2 for stainless steel, were adopted in
the current study. The emissivity of fire was taken as unity as pro-
posed in EN 1991-1-2 [27] and EN 1993-1-2 [26].
Thermal properties, such as thermal conductivity and specific
heat, proposed by EN 1992-1-2 [28] for concrete and those

Concrete core Stainless steel tube

Concrete core y Stainless steel tube y
ts

x 3 x x 3 x
D
B

D/4
B/4

2 2
1 1
y y
ts

B D

(a) Square section (b) Circular section

Concrete core y Stainless steel tube

x 4 x
B
B/8 B/4

3
2
1
y
ts

Thermocouple
(c) Square section (S600-0.3)
Fig. 1. Cross section of CFSST columns.
 L.-H. Han et al. / Engineering Structures 56 (2013) 165–181
Reaction frame
Furnace door
CFSST Specimen
(a) Photo of furnace
Fig. 2. Fire test setup.
proposed by EN 1993-1-2 [26] for stainless steel, respectively, were
used. The effect of water evaporation on temperature distribution
in concrete was taken into consideration by adopting the method
suggested in EN 1992-1-2 [28], i.e., increasing the specific heat of
concrete between 100 and 200 °C according to the moisture con-
tent. In this paper, a moisture content of 6% of concrete weight is
used by sensitivity analysis.
For composite columns, the interface between steel and concrete
maybe generally not in perfect contact, and the interspace may be
filled with water and air [29]. In addition, due to the difference be-
tween thermal expansion coefficients of concrete and stainless steel,
the radial expansion of the outer stainless steel tube is expected to
be larger than that of the core concrete, which may result in the sep-
aration between the tube and the concrete. Hence, when heat trans-
mits through the interface, there is a thermal resistance and
temperature gradient across the interface. A contact conductance
concept is usually used to depict such thermal resistance.
Previously, researchers put forward several values of contact
conductance for the tube and concrete interface of CFST columns
at elevated temperatures, such as Ghojel [29], Ding and Wang
[30], Lu et al. [14], and Espinos et al. [31]. No similar researches
on CFSST columns, however, have been reported so far. Based on
a formula proposed by Ghojel [29], a reduction coefficient of 0.5
is proposed to consider the effect of stainless steel through
sensitivity analysis in this paper. The modified heat contact con-
ductance model is shown as follows:
 
hj ¼ 80:25  31:9 exp 339:9T s1:4
where hj is the heat conductance coefficient in W/m2 K, and Ts is the
average temperature of the contacted nodes of the interface.
4.2. Structure response analysis
The structure response analysis was divided into two steps.
Firstly, the axial load is applied to the column at ambient temper-
ature. Secondly, temperature field data are read into the model
from the results of thermal response analysis to simulate the ac-
tion of fire until the failure of the column whilst keeping the axial
load constant. To solve the non-linear differential equation
169
Spherical hinge
Reaction Asbestos
frame
Furnace
wall
CFSST
specimen
3700
3000
Ground
Spherical hinge NF Asbestos
(b) Schematic diagram of test setup (unit: mm)
involved in the structure response analysis, temperature is incor-
porated into the constitutive models for concrete and stainless
steel to consider the dependence of the material mechanical prop-
erties on temperatures, such as Young’s modulus, Poisson’s ratio,
uniaxial stress–strain relationship, as well as thermal expansion.
In the past, researchers proposed several stress–strain relation-
ship models for stainless steel at elevated temperatures, such as
Sakumoto et al. [32], Chen and Young [33], Abdella [34], Gardner
et al. [35], EN 1993-1-2 [26]. The model proposed in [26] was
adopted in this paper. The parameters required in the model were
obtained by tensile coupon tests. For square tubes, the enhancing
effect of cold-work on both the 0.2% proof strength and the ulti-
mate strength of the corner regions was taken into consideration
by adopting the equations proposed by Ng and Gardner [36].
The confinement effect of outer tubes on the core concrete in
CFSST columns is expected to be similar to that of CFST, including
the enhancing effects on strength and ductility of the core concrete
at both ambient and elevated temperatures. To consider the con-
finement effect, Han et al. [37] presented a stress–strain relation-
ship of concrete under axial compression, which is suitable to be
used in fibre model analysis. Based on this model, Song et al. [38]
presented a modified version which was verified to be valid for
3D finite element analysis. This modified model is used in this study
for the fire performance of CFSST columns. For the thermal expan-
sion, the model proposed in EN 1993-1-2 [26] for stainless steel and
that in EN 1992-1-2 [28] for concrete are adopted, respectively.
The interfacial properties of the outer tubes and core concrete
ð2Þ were considered in the simulation. Hard contact was adopted to
simulate the behaviour of the interface in the normal direction,
and Coulomb friction model was used in the tangential direction.
A friction coefficient of 0.25 had been found to be suitable to ana-
lyse the behaviour for CFSST columns [20]. This value was adopted
in the current study.
Fig. 9 shows the FE model of CFSST columns. To simulate the ac-
tual test conditions, the spherical hinges and rigid blocks were in-
cluded in the model, where the friction coefficient between them is
designated as a small magnitude of 0.05. Another factor considered
in the model was the initial imperfections of the columns.
Imperfections in form of the lowest global elastic buckling model
were included in the current study. Ng and Gardner [36] conducted
170 L.-H. Han et al. / Engineering Structures 56 (2013) 165–181

(1) Observed (2) Predicted (1) Observed (2) Predicted (1) Observed (2) Predicted

(a) S300-0.15 (b) S300-0.3 (c) S600-0.3

(1) Observed (2) Predicted (1) Observed (2) Predicted

(d) C300-0.3 (e) C300-0.45

Fig. 3. Failure modes of the tested columns.

a sensitive analysis with the imperfection amplitudes of L/1000, L/
2000, L/5000 (L is the length of the columns) to investigate the
effect of the initial imperfection on fire performance of stainless
steel columns. Based on their research, L/2000 was taken as the
imperfection amplitude for CFSST columns in this paper.
4.3. Verification of the FE model
The current test results are used to verify the FE model in terms
of failure modes, temperature fields, axial deformation and fire
resistance.
Fig. 3 compares the observed and predicted failure modes of the
tested CFSST specimens. For square specimens, no obvious lateral
deformation occurred both in the tests and in the simulations. This
indicates that these columns failed due to compression and local
buckling. For circular specimens, small lateral deflection and local
buckling, which occurred at the mid-height, were observed both in
the tests and in the simulations. Therefore, the two circular col-
umns failed due to the combination of compression and buckling.
The features of evenly distributed local buckling waves along the
length of square specimens and one major elephant foot bulge
on circular specimens were simulated very well by the modelling.
Comparisons of the predicted T–t curves with those measured
from the fire tests are illustrated in Fig. 5. As can be seen, the pre-
dicted temperatures agree well with the measured results. Fig. 6
compares the predicted and measured axial deformation (D) ver-
sus time (t) curves of the specimens. In general, the predicted D
versus t curves agree well with the measured curves except for
the specimen S300-0.15. Due to the dysfunction of the displace-
ment transducer during the testing of S300-0.15, no expansion
data was recorded for this specimen.
Fig. 10 shows the comparison of the measured and predicted
fire resistances. Again, the accuracy of the predicted fire resistance
is reasonable.
5. Structural behaviour and failure mechanism
Due to the difficulty of measuring stresses and strains of a
specimen under fire, axial deformation is the only mechanical
parameter that could be obtained from the current fire tests. The
 L.-H. Han et al. / Engineering Structures 56 (2013) 165–181
(a) S300-0.15
(d) C300-0.3
Fig. 4. Failure modes of the core concrete.
verified FE model is thus used to study in detail the structural
behaviour of CFSST columns at elevated temperatures. The devel-
opments of deformation, internal force, stress and strain of CFSST
columns during fire are analysed. Two specimens, i.e., S300-0.3
and C300-0.3, with square and circular sections respectively, are
chosen as examples in the following analysis.
5.1. Deformation
For CFST columns under fire, the axial deformation generally
consists of three stages [25]: (I) expansion; (II) gradual contraction;
and (III) sharp contraction. Fig. 11 shows the axial deformation ver-
sus fire exposure time curves of the CFSST specimens. As can be
seen, the axial deformation of CFSST columns shows three similar
characteristic stages as those of CFST columns except that the max-
imum expansion of a CFSST column is obviously less than that of a
conventional CFST column under a same load level. This is mainly
because the strength of stainless steel decreases more dramatically
than that of carbon steel as the temperature rises up to 600 °C. To
investigate the fire behaviour of CFSST columns in detail, the three
stages are analysed in the following analysis.
5.2. Internal force distribution
During the fire exposure, the loads shared by the outer stainless
steel tube and the core concrete varied with the fire exposure time.
171
(b) S300-0.3 (c) S600-0.3
(e) C300-0.45
Fig. 12 indicates how the two components share the load in the
three stages mentioned above.
Before the fire exposure, the outer tube bears about 1/3 of the
total axial load. As the furnace temperature increases, the temper-
ature of the outer tubes rise quickly and the outer tube expands
much faster than the core concrete, resulting in the sharp rise of
its load carried in the first stage (stage I), as shown in Fig. 12a
and b. Since the strength of stainless steel decreases fast with the
increasing temperatures, the outer stainless steel tube, bearing
most of the axial load, yields soon owing to its fast expansion. After
that, the load ratio of the outer tube begins to decrease although
the specimen as a whole keeps expanding slightly. In the following
stages (stage II and III), the load carried by the outer tube decreases
continuously until the column reaches its fire resistance when the
core concrete undertakes most of the load.
5.3. Strain
Fig. 13 shows the strain of the stainless steel versus fire expo-
sure time (t) curves at the mid-height cross-section. The strain con-
sists of stress induced strain and the thermal strain. The thermal
strain is generally determined by the temperature and increases
gradually in all the three stages. The stress induced strain increases
in the expansion stage when the load ratio of the stainless steel
tube increases and the strength of stainless steel decreases. After
the yielding of stainless steel, the stress induced strain keeps con-
stant at a certain strain level until the failure of the column. This is
172 L.-H. Han et al. / Engineering Structures 56 (2013) 165–181

1200
1200
Test Test
Predicted 1 900 Predicted
900 1

)
)
600
600

T (
T (
2
300 2
300 3
3
0 0
0 30 60 90 120 150 180
0 60 120 180 240 300
t (min) t (min)

(a) S300-0.15 (b) S300-0.3

1200 1200
Test Test
900 Predicted 900 Predicted
1
1

)
)

600 600

T (
T (

300 2 300 2
3 3
4
0 0
0 60 120 180 240 0 30 60 90 120 150
t (min) t (min)
(c) S600-0.3 (d) C300-0.3
1200
Test
900 Predicted
)

600 1
T (

300
2
3
0
0 20 40 60 80
t (min)
(e) C300-0.45
Fig. 5. Temperatures (T) versus time (t) relations.

40 20 20
Test Test Test
20 Predicted Predicted Predicted
0 0
0
-20 -20
-20

-40 -40 -40

0 60 120 180 240 0 60 120 180 240 0 60 120 180 240
t (min) t (min) t (min)
(a) S300-0.15 (b) S300-0.3 (c) S600-0.3
20 20
Test Test

0 Predicted 0 Predicted

-20 -20

-40 -40
0 60 120 180 240 0 60 120 180 240
t (min) t (min)
(d) C300-0.3 (e) C300-0.45
Fig. 6. Axial deformation (D) versus time (t) relations.
 L.-H. Han et al. / Engineering Structures 56 (2013) 165–181 173

300 than that of the inner concrete if assuming that a cross-section

250 S600-0.3
remains plane.

200
R (min) S300-0.3
150
100
50
0 taken as the proof stress at 0.2% plastic strain in the stress–strain–
315 630
B (mm)
Fig. 7. Influence of section dimension on the fire resistance.
because the development of local buckling prevents the strain
development in non-buckling zones.
The axial strain of the core concrete at the mid-height section is
shown in Fig. 14. In the expansion stage, the axial load shared by
the concrete is small, and the stress induced strain of the concrete
increases slowly. Tensile strain even occurs in the part of the con-
crete due to the temperature variation in the concrete section. In
the following stages, the stress induced strain increases steadily
as the load carried by the concrete keeps increasing. The thermal
strain of the outer layer of the core concrete is obviously higher
than that of the inner concrete due to its higher temperature.
Hence, the stress induced strain of the outer concrete is also higher
5.4. Stress and strength
The changes of Mises stress and yield strength of the stainless
steel at the mid-height section as a function of fire exposure time
(t) are shown in Fig. 15. The yield strength of the stainless steel is
temperature model [26]. It can be seen that the stress increases
and the strength decreases sharply in the first several minutes of
fire exposure. As a result, the stainless steel tube yields rapidly.
After that, the strength of the stainless steel further declines and
is fully utilised during the following fire exposure.
The axial stress of concrete at the mid-height section versus fire
exposure time (t) curves are shown in Fig. 16, where the locations
of Point 1 and Point 3 are shown in Fig. 1. Due to the temperature
variation, the stresses of the outer part and the inner part of the
core concrete are different. In the first stage of fire exposure, the
axial compressive stresses of concrete decrease as the load carried
by concrete decreases, where the stresses in the inner part of the
concrete even turn into tensile stresses. As the load carried by
the concrete increases once again, the compressive stresses in
the outer part of the core concrete begin to increase dramatically
until the ultimate strength of concrete is reached at elevated

300 200
S300-0.15
250
150 C300-0.3
R (min)

200
R (min)

S300-0.3
150 100
C300-0.45
100
50
50

0 0
0.15 0.3 0.3 0.45
nF nF
(a) Square section (b) Circular section
Fig. 8. Influence of load level (nF) on the fire resistance (R).

Rigid end plate

Rigid end plate
Rigid platen Rigid platen

Stiffener Stiffener

Spherical hinge Spherical hinge

(a) Square Section (b) Circular Section

Rigid block

Spherical hinge
180
220

400

(c) Details of the spherical hinge (unit: mm)

Fig. 9. FE Model.
174 L.-H. Han et al. / Engineering Structures 56 (2013) 165–181

300 temperatures. After that, the strength of the outer part of the core
Square concrete decreases gradually along with the extended fire expo-
Predicted fire resistance (min)
250 Circular sure. The stresses of the inner part of concrete begin to increase
slowly in the second stage of fire exposure.
200
5.5. Failure mechanism
150

From the above analysis, it is obvious that there is a load trans-

100
fer between the stainless steel and the concrete in the CFSST col-
50 umns during fire exposure. In the first stage of fire exposure, the
stainless steel hollow section has higher expansion than concrete
0 due to direct exposure to fire and larger thermal expansion coeffi-
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 cient. As a result, the stainless steel hollow section undertakes
Measured fire resistance (min) most of the load during this stage, which results in early yielding
of the stainless steel and tension developed in the inner part of
Fig. 10. Comparison of fire resistance between FE model and tests.
concrete. The yielding of the stainless steel should have led to large

40 15

20 F B
B 0
F A
0
A C
C -15
-20
D
D
-40 -30
0 60 120 180 0 60 120 180
t (min) t (min)
(a) C300-0.3 (b) S300-0.3
Fig. 11. Predicted axial deformation (D) versus time (t) relations.

Concrete Concrete
Stainless steel Stainless steel
100 100
Axial force ratio (%)

Axial force ratio (%)

80 80
60 60
40 40
20 20
0 0
0 50 100 150 0 50 100 150
t (min) t (min)
(a) C300-0.3 (b) S300-0.3
Fig. 12. Axial load distribution in CFSST columns.

Total strain Total strain

Thermal strain Thermal strain
Stress induced strain Stress induced strain
2 2

1 1
Strain (%)

Strain (%)

0 0

-1 -1

-2 -2
0 50 100 150 0 50 100 150
t (min) t (min)
(a) C300-0.3 (b) S300-0.3
Fig. 13. Strain in stainless steel.
 L.-H. Han et al. / Engineering Structures 56 (2013) 165–181 175

1 1

Strain (%)
0

Strain (%)
-1 Total stain -1 Total strain
Thermal strain Thermal strain
Stress induced strain Stress induced strain
-2 -2
0 50 100 150 0 50 100 150
t (min) t (min)
(1) Point 3 (2) Point 1
(a) C300-0.3
1 1

0 0

Strain (%)
Strain (%)

Total strain -1 Total strain

-1
Thermal strain Thermal strain
Stress induced strain Stress induced strain
-2 -2
0 50 100 150 0 50 100 150
t (min) t (min)
(1) Point 3 (2) Point 1
(b) S300-0.3
Fig. 14. Strain in the core concrete.

500 500
Mises stress Mises stress
400 400
Stress (MPa)

Yield stress
Stress (MPa)

Yield stress
300 300

200 200

100 100

0 0
0 50 100 150 0 50 100 150
t (min) t (min)
(a) C300-0.3 (b) S300-0.3
Fig. 15. Stress in stainless steel tube.

axial deformation, yet the core concrete prevents such deformation
by carrying the load transferred from the stainless steel hollow
section and by providing lateral support for the tube to maintain
its bearing capacity to some extent after local buckling occurs. As
the stainless steel deteriorates gradually under elevated tempera-
tures, the core concrete bears most of the load. Due to the non-uni-
form temperature distribution in the core concrete, the outer part
of the concrete has higher temperature and compressive stress,
which is therefore crushed first. This, along with the buckling of
stainless steel hollow section, weakens the confinement on the in-
ner part of concrete, leading to a decrease in the bearing capacity of
the inner part of the core concrete. Finally, the column fails when
the concrete cannot bear the axial load including the part trans-
ferred from the stainless steel hollow section any more.
5.6. Comparison of fire behaviour between CFSST and CFST columns
Due to the difference in the properties of stainless steel and car-
bon steel, there are some differences of the fire behaviour between
conventional CFST columns and CFSST columns. Based on FE
analysis, Fig. 17a shows the axial deformation (D) of a circular CFST
column and a circular CFSST column under the same conditions,
i.e., sectional dimension of 300 mm  5 mm, a column length of
3 m, a load level of 0.3, and pinned boundary conditions. The car-
bon steel model provided by Lu et al. [25] is adopted for analysing
the fire performance of the CFST column in the comparison.
Clearly, the fire resistance of the CFSST column is much higher
than its reference CFST column. In this example, the fire resistance
(R) increased from 48 to 82 min when stainless steel is used to re-
place carbon steel. This can be explained by the different proper-
ties of stainless steel and carbon steel at elevated temperatures.
As shown in Fig. 17b and c, under the same fire condition, the
strength and stiffness of carbon steel decrease much faster than
those of stainless steel in the later stage of fire exposure. This di-
rectly leads to the rapid drop in load-bearing capacity and flexural
stiffness of the CFST column. Fig. 17d shows the variations in nor-
malised loads carried by the concrete and the hollow section. In
Fig. 17d, the load share ratio is the ratio of the load shared by each
part of the cross section to the applied axial load. As can be seen,
the load transfer from the steel hollow section to the concrete is
176 L.-H. Han et al. / Engineering Structures 56 (2013) 165–181

Axial stress Axial stress

Ultimate compression strength Ultimate compression strength

15 15

0 0

Stress (MPa)
Stress (MPa)
-15 -15

-30 -30

-45 -45

-60 -60
0 50 100 150 0 50 100 150
t (min) t (min)
(1) Point 3 (2) Point 1
(a) C300-0.3
Axial stress Axial stress

Ultimate compression strength

Ultimate compression strength
15 15

0 0
Stress (MPa)
Stress (MPa)

-15 -15

-30 -30

-45 -45

-60 -60
0 50 100 150 0 50 100 150
t (min) t (min)
(1) Point 3 (2) Point 1
(b) S300-0.3
Fig. 16. Stress in the core concrete.

20 1.2
Residual strength ratio

CFSST 1 Stainless steel

10
Axial deformation

CFST Carbon steel

0.8
0
(mm)

0.6
-10
0.4
-20 0.2

-30 0
0 30 60 90 0 30 60 90
t (min) t (min)
(a) Axial deformation (b) Residual strength ratio

1.2
1.2
Steel
Residual stiffness ratio

1 CFSST
1 Stainless steel
Load share ratio

Carbon steel 0.8 CFST

0.8
0.6
0.6 0.4
0.4 0.2
0.2 0 Concrete
0 -0.2
0 30 60 90 0 30 60 90
t (min) t (min)
(c) Residual stiffness ratio (d) Load transfer

Fig. 17. Comparison of fire performance between the CFSST column and CFST column.
 L.-H. Han et al. / Engineering Structures 56 (2013) 165–181 177

800 of concrete core (Point 1), at the center (point 3) and at the mid-
CFSST point between Point 1 and Point 3 (Point 2) in the CFSST column
1 and CFST column under the same fire condition. It can be seen that
600 CFST
the temperatures of concrete in CFST rise faster than those in
Load share ratio

CFSST, which may also contribute to a lower fire resistance for

1
400 2 the CFST.
3
2
200 6. Parametric studies

3 Parametric studies are performed by using the FE model to

0
0 30
t (min)
Fig. 18. Comparison of concrete temperatures between the CFSST column and CFST
column.
much faster in the CFST column than that in the CFSST column
after steel yields. Meanwhile, the higher residual strength of stain-
less steel make the load transfer occurred more smoothly.
The difference in thermal properties between different steels
also has some influence on the temperature distribution of the core
concrete. Fig. 18 shows the temperatures of concrete at the surface
60 90 investigate the influence of various factors on the fire resistance
period (R) of CFSST columns. The basic calculating conditions of
the examples in the parametric analysis are selected as follows:
D(B)  ts = 300  5 mm or 900  15 mm, fcu = 40 MPa, stainless
steel grade 1.4301, nF = p
0.3,
ffiffiffi slenderness ratio k (=4L/D) = 40 for cir-
cular section or kð¼ 2 3L=BÞ ¼ 34:6 for square section, pinned
boundary condition and without fire protection. The influences of
the following parameters are investigated:
(1) Sectional type: circular and square.
(2) Sectional dimension: D(B) = 300–1200 mm.
(3) Slenderness ratio: k = 20–60.

250 250

200 200
R (min)
R (min)

150 150

100 100

50 50

0 0
300 600 900 1200 300 600 900 1200
D (mm) B (mm)
(a) Circular (b) Square
Fig. 19. Influence of sectional dimension (D or B) on fire resistance (R).

100 200

75 150
R (min)

R (min)

50 100

25 50

0 0
0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
nF nF
(a) D×ts=300×5 mm (b) D×ts =900×15 mm
(1) Circular
100 200

75 150
R (min)
R (min)

50 100

25 50

0 0
0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
nF nF
(a) B×ts =300×5 mm (b) B×ts =900×15 mm
(2) Square

Fig. 20. Influence of load level (nF) on fire resistance (R).

178 L.-H. Han et al. / Engineering Structures 56 (2013) 165–181

125 250
100 200

R (min)
75 150

R (min)
50 100
25 50
0 0
20 40 60 20 40 60

(a) D×ts=300×5 mm (b) D×ts =900×15 mm

(1) Circular

125 250
100 200
75
R (min)

150

R (min)
50 100
25 50
0 0
17.3 34.6 52 17.3 34.6 52

(a) B×ts =300×5 mm (b) B×ts =900×15 mm

(2) Square
Fig. 21. Influence of slenderness ratio (k) on fire resistance (R).

(4) Stainless steel grade: 1.4301, 1.4401, 1.4571, 1.4003 and indicates that R increases significantly with the increase of D or
1.4462. B. As D or B increases from 300 to 1200 mm, R increases from
(5) Concrete strength: fcu = 30–60 MPa. 83 min to 188 min for circular section and 97–222 min for square
(6) Steel ratio: a = 0.07–0.33. section, respectively. This is understandable since a CFSST column
(7) Load level: nF = 0.3–0.6. with a bigger sectional dimension has more concrete in the col-
umn, thus, the temperature rise is slower in the inner part of the
concrete, which increases its fire endurance.
6.1. Sectional dimension (D or B)

Fig. 19a and b present the influence of the sectional dimension 6.2. Load level (nF)
(D or B) on the fire resistance period (R) of circular and square
CFSST columns, respectively. The sectional dimension (D or B) Load level (nF) is another key factor affecting the fire endurance
has a significant influence on the fire resistance period (R), which of normal CFST columns [8,9]. From Fig. 20, it is also found that nF

250
100
200
75
R (min)

150
R (min)

50 100

25 50
0
0 30 40 50 60
30 40 50 60
fcu
fcu
(a) D×ts=300×5 mm (b) D×ts =900×15 mm
(1) Circular

100 250
200
75
R (min)
R (min)

150
50
100
25 50

0 0
30 40 50 60 30 40 50 60
fcu fcu
(a) B×ts =300×5 mm (b) B×ts =900×15 mm
(2) Square
Fig. 22. Influence of concrete strength (fcu) on fire resistance (R).
 L.-H. Han et al. / Engineering Structures 56 (2013) 165–181 179

100 200

150

R (min)
75

R (min)
50 100

25 50

0 0
0.07 0.15 0.24 0.33 0.07 0.15 0.24 0.33

(a) D×ts=300×5 mm (b) D×ts =900×15 mm

(1) Circular
100 200

75 150
R (min)

R (min)
50 100

25 50

0 0
0.07 0.15 0.24 0.33 0.07 0.15 0.24 0.33

(a) B×ts =300×5 mm (b) B×ts =900×15 mm

(2) Square
Fig. 23. Influence of steel ratio (a) on fire resistance (R).

significantly affects R of the CFSST columns as well. When nF in-
creases from 0.3 to 0.6, R decreases by around 70–75%.
6.3. Slenderness ratio (k)
Fig. 21 shows the influence of member slenderness ratio (k) on
the fire resistance period (R) of CFSST columns. R decreases as the
increase of k. This is owing to the fact that the capacity of a stub
column is mainly determined by its sectional strength, whilst that
of a slender column highly depends on the flexural stiffness of the
member. When a CFSST column is subjected to fire, the tempera-
ture development across its section is a process from the exterior
to the interior. Therefore, the outer part of the section, which
makes a substantial contribution to the flexural stiffness of the col-
umn, tends to suffer a more significant material degradation
caused by the elevated temperature, thus resulting in the signifi-
cant reduction of the flexural stiffness of the column. For this rea-
son, the influence of fire on the member capacity of a CFSST
column with a higher k is more significant than that with a smaller
k.
6.4. Concrete strength (fcu)
Fig. 22 shows the influence of concrete strength (fcu) on the fire
resistance period (R) of CFSST columns. It can be seen that, the con-
crete strength has a moderate influence on fire resistance period

240 240

180 CFST (88min)

180
R (min)
R (min)

CFST (48min)
120 120

60 60

0 0
1.4301 1.4401 1.4571 1.4003 1.4462 1.4301 1.4401 1.4571 1.4003 1.4462
Steel grade
Steel grade
(b) D×ts =900×15 mm
(a) D×ts =300×5 mm
(1) Circular

240 240

180 180 CFST (94min)

CFST (60min)
R (min)
R (min)

120 120

60 60

0 0
1.4301 1.4401 1.4571 1.4003 1.4462 1.4301 1.4401 1.4571 1.4003 1.4462
Steel grade Steel grade
(a) B×ts =300×5 mm (b) B×ts =900×15 mm
(2) Square
Fig. 24. Influence of stainless steel grade on fire resistance (R).
180 L.-H. Han et al. / Engineering Structures 56 (2013) 165–181

Table 3 S600-0.3 are beyond the limitations of EC 4. As can be seen that,

Design fire resistance (R) of circular CFSST (unit: min). in general, these three methods significantly underestimate the fire
Slenderness ratio k Sectional dimension D (mm) Load level nF resistance of CFSST columns in most cases. Therefore, it seems nec-
0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 essary to consider the superior fire performance of stainless steel in
predicting the fire resistance of CFSST columns. As discussed above,
20 300 110 70 45 25
600 170 95 65 40
the sectional dimension (D or B), load level (n) and slenderness
900 230 130 85 50 ratio (k) are the key factors that affect the fire resistance of CFSST
40 300 80 55 35 25
columns. Thus, based on the above parametric analysis, two design
600 125 75 50 35 tables related to these parameters are proposed to predict the fire
900 150 90 60 45 resistance of circular and square CFSST columns under axial
60 300 65 45 30 20 compression, as shown in Tables 3 and 4, respectively.
600 80 50 40 30
900 100 60 50 40
7. Conclusions

Based on the experimental and analytical results of this study,

Table 4 the following conclusions can be drawn:
Design fire resistance (R) of square CFSST (unit: min).

Slenderness ratio k Sectional dimension B (mm) Load level nF (1) Five full-scale CFSST columns were tested under standard
0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 fire condition to study the fire performance under combined
17.3 300 110 70 45 25
loading and fire. Test results showed that the fire resistance
600 170 95 60 35 of CFSST columns is significantly influenced by the sectional
900 220 120 75 45 dimension and load level.
34.6 300 95 65 45 25 (2) A FE model was introduced to simulate the temperature
600 145 80 55 35 development and the structural behaviour of CFSST col-
900 160 95 65 45 umns. The predicted results were verified by the current test
52 300 75 50 35 20 data.
600 95 65 45 30 (3) Based on the verified FE model, the structural behaviour and
900 125 85 60 40
failure mechanism of CFSST columns exposed to fire were
analysed. The analytical results showed that the core con-
crete bears most of the axial load in the later stage of fire
(R) when the sectional dimension of columns is relatively small. exposure.
But R generally increases with the increasing of concrete strength (4) Due to the differences in thermal and mechanical properties
for the columns with a big sectional dimension. between stainless steel and carbon steel, CFST columns and
CFSST columns have different fire performance under the
6.5. Steel ratio (a) same fire condition. Generally, a CFSST column has higher
fire resistance when compared with its reference CFST
Fig. 23 shows the influence of steel ratio (a) on the fire resis- counterpart.
tance period (R) of CFSST columns, where a is the ratio of the (5) A series of parametric studies were performed by using the
cross-sectional area of the steel tube and that of the concrete core. FE model, and two design tables were then proposed to pre-
It is found that R decreases with the increasing of a. A higher steel dict the fire resistance of CFSST columns.
ratio (a) means a higher amount of steel in the section. Since the
material degradation of steel at elevated temperature is far signif-
icant than that of the concrete core, a CFSST column with a higher a Acknowledgements
tends to attain its fire resistance more quickly when subjected to
fire. This research was supported by China National Key Basic Re-
search Special Funds project under Grant No. 2012CB719700, and
the Projects supported by Research Fund for Application and Inno-
6.6. Steel grade
vation of the Ministry of Public Security (No. 2007YYCXTXS155).
This research was also partly supported by the Australian Research
Fig. 24 compares the fire resistance period (R) of CFSST columns
Council under its Future Fellowships scheme (Project no:
using different types of stainless steel, where the values of R for
FT0991433). The financial support is highly appreciated.
corresponding carbon CFST columns are also shown in this figure.
It can be seen that, the column using 1.4571 steel has a highest R
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