Ultimate Behavior of Lightweight High Strength Concrete Filled Steel Tube (LWHCFST)

Abstract

Strength and ductility of concrete members can be significantly improved with lateral confinement, usually achieved by using a steel tube casing. The concrete confinement can be utilized to make bridge lighter and have longer spans. In addition, a significant portion of the load carried concrete bridge girders is the selfweight of the girders and deck. If all or part of the girder and deck can be made using high strength lightweight concretes, there is a potential for appreciable economic savings since the self-weight could be reduced by as much as 15-20%. The study described herein investigates the static nonlinear behavior of lightweight high strength concrete filled steel tube (LWHCFST) bridges up to failure. The current study had two specific goals. The first was to experimentally determine the static modulus of elasticity of confined high strength lightweight concrete mixture. The second was to develop a nonlinear finite element computer program to study the ultimate behavior of a filled tube (LWHCFST) example bridge. The nonlinear stress-strain behavior of confined high strength lightweight concrete is evaluated experimentally by the authors and is used to help establish a comparison between the ultimate behavior of the bridge using confined normal weight concrete and confined high strength lightweight concrete. The ultimate strength of the bridge is related to the occurrence of an equivalent failure mechanism. The study indicated that the use of (LWHCFST) is beneficial for extending bridge girder lengths.