Fiber beam-column element for circular concrete lled steel tube under

axialexuretorsion combined load

Wang Yu-hang
a
, Nie Jian-guo
b
, Fan Jian-sheng
b
a
Railway Engineering Research Institute, China Academy of Railway Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
b
Department of Civil Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 26 December 2012
Accepted 20 November 2013
Available online xxxx
Keywords:
Quasi-static test
Fiber beam-column model
Torsion effect
Time-history analysis
When subjected to the horizontal earthquake load, compressionbendingtorsion combined actions often exist
inthe piers of curvedbridges because the center of stiffness andthe center of mass of curvedbridges do not locate
at the same position. A newber beam-column element considering the nonlinear torsion behavior for concrete
lled steel tubes with circular section was developed based on the traditional ber beam-column model, which
had widely been used. The calculation and solution procedures of the proposed ber beam-column model were
also illustrated. The reasonable geometrical relations, material constitutive law and force equilibrium equations
were all applied. Based onthe principles of ber beam-columnelement considering torsioneffect, a nonlinear so-
lution program was developed using FORTRAN language. The entire loading history of concrete lled steel tube
columns subjected to combined compressionbendingtorsion load could be predicted with good agreement
with test results. Using the proposed ber beam-column model for the time-history analysis of curved steel
concrete composite girder bridges, the high solution precision and efciency could be obtained, compared
with the traditional nite element model.
2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
With the rapid growth of trafc volumes today, especially in devel-
oping countries, plenty of urban elevated bridges and highway bridges
are being constructed. Compared withconventional reinforced concrete
columns, concrete lled steel tube columns have major advantages:
(1) fully utilization of the material strength of steel and concrete,
(2) high bearing capacity and rigidity, (3) excellent earthquake-
resistant properties, and (4) rapid construction [13]. Therefore, con-
crete lled steel tube columns are frequently used as the piers of brid-
ges. Curved bridges often exist due to the trafc line, and some piers
are often xed to girders in order to ensure the integrity of curved brid-
ges, as shown in Fig. 1(a). Different from straight bridges, the stiffness
center and the mass center of curved bridges do not locate at the
same position, so the torsion effect exists in piers of curved bridges sub-
jected to horizontal earthquake, as illustrated in Fig. 1(b). Therefore, the
piers bear the compressionbendingtorsion combined load.
There are already many literatures about the mechanical behavior of
concrete lled steel tube columns subjected to the axial force and bend-
ing moment, including tests, theoretical models, rened nite element
models, ber beam-column models and design methods [48]. Howev-
er, fewer literatures can be found about the non-linear torsion behavior
of concrete lled steel tubes. The tests on concrete lled steel tube col-
umns with circular section subjected to pure static torsion have been
carried out by Beck and Kiyomiya [9], Xu, Gong, Lee, and Zhou et al.
[1013]. ThenHanet al. [14,15] usedthe three-dimensional renednite
element model to analyze the nonlinear torsion behavior of concrete
lled steel tube columns, and the simplied design method was pro-
posed by the regression analysis. Lee et al. [16] proposed a theoretical
model for obtaining the torsion strength of concrete lled steel tubes
subjected to pure static torsion with good agreement with test results.
In the time-history analysis of bridge structures subjected to earth-
quake load, the modeling of the three-dimensional rened nite ele-
ment model is relatively complicated, and the solution efciency is
also relatively lower than that of the beam-column model, which has
been widely applied for predicting the seismic response of structures.
Meanwhile, the parameters of structures using the beam-column
model are more convenient to be changed, so the detailed seismic prop-
erties of structures can be obtained by the parameter analysis. The clas-
sical ber beam-column model is a kind of beam-column nite element
models. As shown in Fig. 2(a), the section of structure members is divid-
ed into several bers, and each ber is supposed to be at uniaxial stress
strain state, as shown in Fig. 2(b). The literatures have already proved
that the ber beam-column model has high solution efciency and pre-
cision for predicting the seismic response of structures [17,18].
However, for concrete lled steel tube columns subjected to torsion,
the shear strain and shear stress will be produced on the section, but the
torsion effect cannot be considered using the traditional ber beam-
column model, due to the uniaxial stressstrain state of each ber
on the section. In this paper, rstly, the quasi-static test on concrete
lled steel tube columns subjected to compressionbendingtorsion
Journal of Constructional Steel Research 95 (2014) 1021
E-mail address: wangyuhang1985@gmail.com (Y. Wang).
0143-974X/$ see front matter 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcsr.2013.11.014
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Constructional Steel Research
combined loadwas introduced. Thena newber beam-columnelement
was developed based on the traditional ber beam-column model
and some reasonable assumptions, including linear plane section as-
sumption for the normal strain and linear distribution assumption for
the shear strain, in order to simulate the global mechanical behavior
of concrete lled steel tubes withcircular sectionsubjected to combined
compressionbendingtorsion load as shown in Fig. 2(b). Since the pro-
posed model was based on the traditional ber beam-column model,
Steel-concrete composite girder
Concrete filled steel pier
Girder-pier fixed joint
a) Curved steel-concrete composite bridge with the piers fixed connected to girders.
Stiffness centre
Horizontal earthquake load
Reaction torsion moment
Mass centre
Reaction force
Reaction torsion moment
Pier
Pier
Reaction force
Reaction force
Reaction force
b) Mechanical state (Overlook)
Fig. 1. Torsion effect on the piers of the curved bridge.
a)
b)
Fig. 2. Fiber beam-column model for steelconcrete composite curved girder bridges.
11 Y. Wang et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 95 (2014) 1021
the local buckling, initial overall and local geometric imperfections of
the steel tube of concrete lled steel tube columns were not considered
in the proposed beam element.
2. Experimental research
2.1. Test design
A total of seven concrete-lled steel tube columns with circular sec-
tion were tested. The diameter of the section and the height of the spec-
imens were 220 mm and 1100 mm respectively. The steel tubes were
all manufactured from mild steel sheet, with the plate being cut from
the sheet, tack welded into a circular shape and then welded with a
single-bevel butt weld. The strips of the steel tubes were tested in ten-
sion. Four coupons taken from the steel tube have been tested. The av-
erage yield strength of the tubes with thickness 4 mm and 6 mm was
285 MPa and 336 MPa respectively.
A special self-design setup was used in order to apply the combined
compressioncyclic bendingtorsion cyclic load, as shown in Fig. 3(a).
Two horizontal hydraulic servo actuators with maximal load capacity
1500 kNwere used to produce the cyclic horizontal concentrated forces
simultaneously. The distance from two actuators from the axis of the
specimen was identical. One hydraulic servo actuator was chosen for
the main control actuator using the displacement control mode, and
the other actuator was chosen for the passive control actuator. The
force of the passive control actuator always had a proportion to the
force of the main control actuator, so the bending moment and torsion
moment could be both produced on the section of specimens. The
axial compressive force was applied by a jack above the center area of
the top rigid girder.
The various loading modes were used by changing the ratios of the
axial force to the axial bearing capacity and the bending moment to
the torsion moment. The detailed loading parameters for the seven
specimens in the test were illustrated in Table 1, where N represented
the axial compressive load, and the ultimate axial bearing capacity N
u
of CFST columns was calculated according to the reference [5].
2.2. Test results
Fig. 3(b) showed the torsion moment versus rotation angle hysteret-
ic curves of the specimens subjected to compressionbendingtorsion
combined cyclic load. It could be observed that the hysteretic loops of
all the specimens were very plump, which indicated that CFST columns
subjected to cyclic bendingtorsion had high energy dissipation
Side view Top view
a) Test setup for compression, bending and torsion combined cyclic load
t = 6mm
N =0
t = 6mm
N =600kN
-25-20-15-10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
T
/
k
N
.

m
-100
-50
0
50
100
T
/
k
N
.

m
-100
-50
0
50
100
T
/
k
N
.

m
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
T
/
k
N
.

m
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
T
/
k
N
.

m
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
T
/
k
N
.

m
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
T
/
k
N
.

m
C1-1
t = 4mm
N =0
C1-2
t = 6mm
N =1800kN
C2-1 C2-2
-5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5
C-BT1 C-BT2 C-CBT
t=6mm
t =6mm t =6mm t =6mm
b) Torsion moment versus rotation angle hystereticcurves of specimens
-5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5
-25-20-15-10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25 -25-20-15-10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25 -25-20-15-10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25
-25-20-15-10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25
Fig. 3. Quasi-static test on concrete lled steel tube columns subjected to compressionbendingtorsion.
12 Y. Wang et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 95 (2014) 1021
capacity. The unloading rigidity was nearly equal to the initial elastic ri-
gidity, so the rigidity degradation was not obvious. In addition, some
hysteretic loops of the specimens were a little asymmetric due to the
asymmetric local buckling of the steel tube and the displacement con-
trol loading mode of the main control actuator.
3. Element constitutive laws
The ber beam-column element considering torsion effect was sche-
matically shown in Fig. 4(a). The reference frame for the element was
the local coordinate system X, Y, Z, while X, Y, Z denoted the global ref-
erence system. The longitudinal axis X was the union of geometric cen-
troids of each section. As shown in Fig. 4(a), in the three dimensional
global coordinate system, there were totally 6 for each node of the
ber beam-column element considering torsion effect, corresponding
to the six nodal force components and six nodal displacement
components respectively. There were totally twelve components in
the element generalized force vector and the element generalized dis-
placement vector of the ber beam-column element.
In the following parts, through series decomposition and integrated
processes calculated fromthe element displacement, the procedures for
obtaining the element force vector and element stiffness matrix in the
global coordinate system vector were illustrated
3.1. Transformation from global coordinate systemto local element coordi-
nate system
Firstly, the element generalized displacement q
e
in the global coor-
dinate systemneeded to be transformed to the element generalized dis-
placement q
e
in the local element coordinate system, in order to
introduce the element constitutive law. The coordinate transformation
matrix V between the global coordinate systemand local element coor-
dinate system could be calculated as:
V
1212

R
33
0 0 0
0 R
33
0 0
0 0 R
33
0
0 0 0 R
33
_

_
_

_
: 1
The square matrix R could be calculated as:
R
33

x
!
e
jj x
!
e
jj
2
;
y
!
e
jj y
!
e
jj
2
;
z
!
e
jj z
!
e
jj
2
_ _
T
2
where x
e
!
was the vector subtracted by the coordinates (x
1
, y
1
, z
1
) of
node 1 fromthe coordinates (x
2
, y
2
, z
2
) of node 2, y
e
!
was the vector per-
pendicular to the element axis, and z
e
!
was the cross product of x
e
!
andy
e
!
.
Then the element generalized displacement in the local element co-
ordinate system could be calculated as the product of the transforma-
tion matrix and the element generalized displacement in the global
coordinate system:
q
e
V q
e
: 3
Table 1
Loading modes of specimens.
Specimen no. Loading mode N/N
u
M-T ratio
C1-1 Pure torsion 0 0
C1-2 Pure torsion 0 0
C2-1 Compressiontorsion 0.2 0
C2-2 Compressiontorsion 0.6 0
C-BT1 Bendingtorsion 0 3
C-BT2 Bendingtorsion 0 1.5
C-CBT Compressionbendingtorsion 0.2 0.7
a)
b)
Fig. 4. Basic concept of proposed ber beam-column element considering torsion effect.
13 Y. Wang et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 95 (2014) 1021
3.2. Transformation from element nodal displacement to section displace-
ment at integration point
The linear shape function was chosen for calculating the deforma-
tion eld of the ber beam-column element, so the shape function ma-
trix for calculating the section generalize displacement vector q (x) in
the local element coordinate system could be directly obtained as:
N x
612
diag
1
x ;
1
x
1
x f g
66
; diag
2
x ;
2
x
2
x f g
66
_
: 4
where
1
(x) = 1 x/L,
2
(x) = x/L, L was the length of the element.
Therefore, the section generalized displacement vector at integra-
tion points could be calculated as the product of the shape function ma-
trix and the element generalized displacement vector:
q x N x q
e
: 5
3.3. Transformation from section displacement to section generalize strain
Based on the deformation compatibility principle, the section gener-
alize strain vector d = {
x

y

z

x

y

z
}
T
could be obtained by differ-
entiating the section generalized displacement along the axial
direction of the element. The generalize strain vector d could be calcu-
lated by differentiating the shape function matrix:
d x q

x N

x qq
e
6
3.4. Transformation from section generalize strain to ber strain
In the local element coordinate system, the section of the concrete
lled steel tube was divided into bers, including concrete bers and
steel bers. The strain matrix E of all the bers was dened as:
E
3n1
e
T
1
e
T
i
e
T
n
_ _
T
1i n; e
i

i

yi

zi
_ _
T
_ _
7
where e
i
was the strain vector of the ith ber, including the normal
strain
i
and the shear strain
yi
,
zi
, and n was the total number of the
bers.
In order to establish the relation between the section generalized
strain and the strain matrix E of all the bers, the plane section assump-
tion for the normal strain and the linear distribution assumption for the
shear strain produced by the torsion moment were used, as shown in
Fig. 4(b). Therefore, the strain vector e
i
of each ber could be obtained
as:
e
i
u
i
d: 8
Where u
i
was the position function matrix of the ith ber, which
could be expressed as:
u
i

1 0 0 0 z
i
y
i
0 0 0 z
i
0 0
0 0 0 y
i
0 0
_
_
_
_
9
where y
i
and z
i
were the coordinates of the ith ber on the section in the
local element coordinate system.
Composing the positionfunction matrix of all the bers, the matrix U
was obtained as:
U
3n6
u
T
1
u
T
i
u
T
n
_ _
T
1i n 10
Therefore, the relation between the strain matrix E of all the bers
and the section generalized strain vector d could be established as:
E U d: 11
3.5. Transformation from strain of bers to stress of bers
For the concrete ber, in order to introduce the material constitutive
model in the principal strain space, the general strain space needed to
be transformed to the principal strain space. Then the principal stress
space of concrete bers was obtained by introducing the material con-
stitutive model, and the general stress space of concrete bers could
be calculated fromthe principal stress space based on the stress equilib-
riumcondition. However, for the steel ber, the material constitutive re-
lation in the general strain space was relatively convenient to be
obtained, so the general stress space could be transformed directly
from the general strain space. Simultaneously, the tangential stiffness
vector of each ber could be also calculated. Therefore, the relation be-
tween the strain matrix E and the stress matrix S of bers could be
established.
The stress matrix S of bers and the tangential stiffness matrix T of
bers were dened as:
S
3n1
s
T
1
s
T
i
s
T
n
_ _
T
1i n; s
i

i

yi

zi
_ _
T
_ _
12
T
3n3n
t
T
1
t
T
i
t
T
n
_ _
T
1i n; t
i
diag E
i
; G
yi
; G
zi
_ _ _ _
13
where, s
i
was the stress vector of the ith ber, including the normal
stress
i
and the shear stress
yi
,
zi
. t
i
was the tangential stiffness vector
of the ithber, including the normal tangential stiffness E
i
andthe shear
tangential stiffness G
yi
and G
zi
. n was the total number of bers on the
section.
The detailed procedures using material constitutive models to ob-
tain the stress matrix S and the tangential stiffness matrix T of bers
were given in the Part 3 of this paper.
3.6. Transformation from stress of bers to section generalize stress
The section generalized stress vector D(x) = {N, V
y
, V
z
, T, M
y
, M
z
}
T
,
could be directly obtained fromthe stress matrix S of bers by integrat-
ing the stress of all the bers on the section. The nonlinear shear behav-
ior was not considered in the proposed element. All the integration
equations were given below:
N
_
A

i
A
i
dA; V
y
S
y

y
; V
z
S
z

z
14
T
_
A

x
2
i
y
2
i
_
A
i
dA
M
y

_
A

i
z
i
A
i
dA; M
z

_
A

i
y
i
A
i
dA
15
where A was the area of the section, S
y
and S
z
were the elastic shear stiff-
ness of the section, which could be calculated by the methods in refer-
ence [19].
According to the virtual work principles, the following equations
could be obtained:
W
1
d
T
D
W
2
E
T
A S Ud
T
A T U d
W
1
W
2
:
16
14 Y. Wang et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 95 (2014) 1021
The matrix A was a diagonal matrix composed by the area of each
ber:
A
3n3n
diag A
1
;A
1
;A
1
A
k
;A
k
;A
k
;;A
n
;A
n
;A
n
17
Introducing Eq. (11) into Eq. (16), the stiffness matrix k(x) of the
section at the integration point in the local element coordinate system
could be obtained as:
k x
66
U
T
ATU 18
3.7. Transformation from section generalize stress to element nodal force
Using Eq. (4), the element force vector in the local element coordi-
nate system could be calculated by integrating the section generalized
stress at all the integration points of the element:
Q
e

_
L
0
N
0
x
T
D x dx: 19
According to the virtual work principle again, the following equa-
tions could be obtained:
W
1
Q
T
e
q
e
W
2

_
L
0
k x d x
T
d x dx
W
1
W
2
:
20
Introducing Eq. (11) into Eq. (20), the element stiffness matrix inthe
local element coordinate system could be obtained as:
K
e

_
L
0
N
0
x
T
k x N
0
x dx: 21
3.8. Transformation fromlocal element coordinate systemto global coordi-
nate system
Introducing the geometrical transformation matrix in Eq. (1), the el-
ement force vector and the element stiffness matrix in the global coor-
dinate system were calculated as:
Q
e
V
T
Q
e
22
K
e
V
T
K
e
V: 23
4. Material constitutive models
In this part, the detailed procedures were illustrated for obtaining
the stress vector s
i
and the tangential stiffness vector t
i
of concrete
and steel bers based on material constitutive models.
Eachber onthe sectionwas at normal-shear strainstate, so the uni-
axial material stressstrain relation was no longer suitable. Firstly, the
two shear strains
yi
and
zi
produced by the torsion moment in the
two mutual perpendicular directions in the local element coordinate
system needed to be superimposed, so the total shear strain
i
of the
ith ber could be calculated as:

2
yi

2
zi
_
: 24
Combined with the normal strain
i
of the ith ber, the general
strain space of the ith ber was obtained. In order to calculate the gen-
eral stress space from the general strain space, the strain compatibility
equation, stress equilibrium equation and material constitutive equa-
tion were used as following.
4.1. Concrete
Because the constitutive law was relatively complicated for the
concrete at normal-shear strain state, the general coordinate sys-
tem of the concrete ber should be changed into the principal strain
coordinate system. Then the concrete constitutive model consider-
ing the compressive softening effect in the principal strain space
could be used. According to the strain compatibility condition, the
principal strain vector e
pi
of the ith concrete ber could be calculat-
ed as:
e
pi


pti

pci
_ _
0:5 cos
1
2
i
0:5 cos
1
2
i
_ _

i

i
_ _
25
where
pti
and
pci
were the principal tensile strain and principal
compressive strain of the ith ber respectively.
i
was the inclina-
tion of the principal strain space which could be calculated as:
0:5arc tan
i
=2
i
: 26
In the principal strain space, introducing the concrete constitutive
equations, the principal stress vector s
pi
of the ith ber could be obtain-
ed as:
s
pi


pti

pci
_ _
27
where
pti
and
pci
were the principal tensile stress and principal com-
pressive stress of the ith ber respectively, which could be calculated
based on the concrete constitutive equations:

pti
F
t0
;
pti
_ _
28

pci
F
c0
;
pci
_ _
29
where F was the function for calculating the stressstrain relations of
the concrete considering conned effect provided by the steel tube,
t0
and
c0
were the tensile peak strain and the compressive peak strain
of the conned concrete, was the compressive softening coefcient
for considering the inuence of the concrete cracks in the principal ten-
sile direction on the concrete mechanical behavior in the principal com-
pressive direction.
4.1.1. Uniaxial stressstrain relations of conned concrete
The compressive stressstrain relations of the conned concrete
proposed by Han were used [20]. The skeleton curves for concrete lled
steel tube could be calculated as:
F 2xx
2
x1
F
1 q x
0:1
1
_ _
x
x1
2
x
1:2
b1:2
xN1
_

_
30
where x = /
0
,F = /
0
,
0
= [1+(0.054
2
+ 0.4)(24/f
c
)
0.45
]
f
c
,
0
=
cc
+[1400 + 800(f
c
/ 24-1)]
0.2
(),
cc
= 1300 + 12.5 f
c

(), q =
0.745
/(2 + ), = (2.36 10
5
)
[0.25+(x 0.5)7]
f
c

2
3.51
10
4
. f
c
was the compressive strength of the standard cylinder
concrete.
Since the tensile behavior of concrete had little effect on the behav-
ior of structural member, the tensile stressstrain relations of conned
concrete were assumed to be as the same as that of the common
15 Y. Wang et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 95 (2014) 1021
concrete: linear elastic before the strain reaches the tension peak strain.
The smeared crack model was used for describing the post cracking be-
havior of concrete, and the linear relationship was used for the descend-
ing stage of the stressstrain curve of the post-cracking concrete. The
fracture energy G
f
of concrete was calculated by the methods in CEB-
FIP MC90 [21]:
G
f
0:1f
c

0:7
31
where was the coefcient affectedby the maximal aggregate diameter
D
max
, which could be determined according to the provisions in CEB-FIP
MC90.
4.1.2. Softening coefcient
In the concrete principal stress space, the tensile stress has signi-
cant effect on the material behavior in the compressive direction. In
1972, the experimental study was carried out by Robinson [22]. It was
found that the compressive stressstrain relation of the concrete sub-
jected to tension in the perpendicular direction was much different
from that at uniaxial compressive strainstress state. The peak strain
and stress in the principal compressive direction were signicantly af-
fected by the cracking strain in the principal tensile direction: the
peak strain and stress were both reduced. Subsequently, plenty of re-
search results about the compressive softening effect of the concrete
had been achieved, among them the most representative theories
were proposed by Hsu [23] and Collins [24]. The compressive softening
b)
a)
Fig. 5. Development of proposed ber beam-column element.
16 Y. Wang et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 95 (2014) 1021
100
80
60
40
20
0
0.04
/ rad
120
Ref. [29]: C-T
0.08 0.12
100
80
60
40
20
0
/ rad
120
N=0.2N
u
Ref. [29]: C-TP
100
80
60
40
20
0
/ rad
120
Ref. [29]: C-TP
0.04 0.16 0.08 0.12 0.04 0.16 0.08 0.12
30
24
18
12
6
0
5 100 15 20 25 30
/ deg.
36
35
0
3 6 9 12 15 18
/ deg.
21
Ref. [28]: TCB1-1 Ref. [28]: TB1-1
30
24
18
12
6
36
Predicted
Test
Predicted
Test
Pure torsion Pure torsion
Pure torsion
Compression-torsion
N=0.4N
u
Compression-torsion
Axial compression
Compression-bending
Compression-bending-torsion
0 5 10 15 20 15 20
0
1
2
3
4 x10
3
V
/ mm
0 10
0
10
20
30
25
15
5
5
10
20
30
25
15
5
h
/ mm
Compression-bending
0.16
Ref. [26] Ref. [27]: S1 Ref. [27]: S2
Predicted
Test
Predicted
Test
Predicted
Test
Predicted
Test
Predicted
Test
Predicted
Test
N=297kN N=178kN
10
0
20
30
40
23 0 46 69 92 115
Ref. [29]: C-TMP
Predicted
Test
N=0.2N
u
h
/
* Notation: T-torsion moment, N-axial compression force, F-lateral horizontal force
-rotation angle,
V
-vertical displacement,
h
-horizontal displacement
a) Static test
-25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 1 15 20 25
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
/
C-T1
-25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
/
C-T2
T

/
k
N
.
m
/ /
-
-
-25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
/
C-CT2
/
C2-2 C1-2 C1-1
-25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
/
C2-1
/
-5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5
-100
-50
0
50
100
C-BT1
/
-5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5
-100
-50
0
50
100
C-BT2
-25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
/
C-CBT
b) Cyclic test
15 20 0 10 5
h
/ mm
T

/

k
N
.
m
N
/
k
N
.
m
F
/
k
N
.
m
F
/
k
N
.
m
T
/
k
N
.
m
T
/
k
N
.
m
T
/
k
N
.
m
T
/
k
N
.
m
T
/
k
N
.
m
F
/
k
N
.
m
T
/
k
N
.
m
T
/
k
N
.
m
T
/
k
N
.
m
T
/
k
N
.
m
T
/
k
N
.
m
Fig. 6. Comparison between predicted results and static test results.
17 Y. Wang et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 95 (2014) 1021
coefcient for reducing the peak stress and strain in the principal com-
pressive direction was proposed in order to consider the compressive
softening effect due to cracking in the principal tensile direction. The
method for calculating the compressive softening coefcient proposed
by Hsu was used in this paper:
1:0=

1 400
pt
_
32
where
pt
was the principal tensile strain.
After the principal stress space of the concrete ber was obtained,
the general stress space of the ith concrete ber could be calculated
based on the stress equilibrium conditions, so the stress vector of the
ith concrete ber in the general stress space could be calculated as:

i
_ _

0:5 cos
1
2
i
0:5 cos
1
2
i
_ _

pti

pci
_ _
: 33
4.2. Steel
The perfect elastic-plastic model was chosenfor the steel material. In
the elastic stage, the stressstrain relation could be determined as:
D
e
34
where = {
s
,
s
}
T
was the stress vector of the steel ber, = {
s
,
s
}
T
was the strainvector, and D
e
was the elastic Jacobianmatrix givenbelow
directly:
D
e

E
s
0
0 G
s
_ _
35
where E
s
and G
s
were the Young modulus and elastic shear modulus of
the steel material.
The Classic Von-Mises yield criterion and the associated ow rule
were chosen for the steel material [25]. Through several steps of deriva-
tions and transformations based on principles of the elasticity and plas-
ticity mechanics, the relations betweenthe incremental stress vector d
and the incremental strain vector d in the elastic-plastic stage could
be obtained as:
d D
ep
d 36
where D
ep
was the Jacobian matrix of the steel material at elastic-plastic
stage:
D
ep

E
s
G
s
E
s

2
s
9G
s

2
s
9
2
s
3
s

s
3
s

s

2
s
_ _
37
where
s
,
s
were the normal stress and shear stress of the steel.
In this part, the relation between the stress and the strain of steel -
bers was obtained, so the general strain space of steel bers could be
transformed into the general stress space.
Through the procedures in part 3.1 and part 3.2, the general stress
space of concrete and steel bers was both obtained from the general
strain space. Then the stress vector s
i
= {
i
,
yi
,
zi
}
T
of the ith ber in
the local element coordinate system could be composed, and the tan-
gential stiffness vector t
i
= {E
i
, G
yi
, G
zi
}
T
of the ith ber could be also cal-
culated based on the incremental stressstrain relations of bers.
5. Nonlinear solution procedures
Fig. 5(a) showed the solution procedures for the nonlinear analysis
on the global structure using the proposed ber beam-column element
considering torsion effect. It could be seen from Fig. 5(a) that the struc-
tural nodal reaction force and the structural stiffness matrix were ex-
plicitly calculated from the structural nodal displacement and the
incremental structural nodal displacement. However, due to the nonlin-
ear behavior of the structure at elastic-plastic stage, the structural nodal
displacement could not be directly obtained from the structural nodal
load. Therefore, the NewtonRaphson iterative method was used for
solving the nonlinear behavior of the structure, as shown in Fig. 5(b).
Based on the procedures shown in Fig. 5(a) and the Newton
Raphson iterative solution method, a nonlinear analysis program was
developed using FORTRAN language, in order to use the ber beam-
column element considering torsion effect.
6. Verications
6.1. Static torsion
The predicted results and static test results in reference [2629]
were comparatively plotted in Fig. 6(a). From the comparison results,
it could be seen that the proposed ber beam-column element consid-
ering torsion effect had high accuracy for predicting the torsion behav-
ior of concrete lled steel tube columns subjected to static torsion.
Furthermore, compared with the traditional three-dimensional rened
nite element model, the high modeling speed and solution efciency
could be achieved using the proposed ber beam-column model con-
sidering torsion effect.
6.2. Cyclic torsion
The mechanical behavior of CFST columns subjected to cyclic com-
bined loading could be also predicted by the ber beam-column
model proposed by this paper. The entire torsional loading history of
the seven specimens was calculated based on the proposed ber
beam-column model. The results were shown in Fig. 6(b), which
Fig. 6 (continued).
18 Y. Wang et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 95 (2014) 1021
indicated that the good agreement between the test results and the pre-
dicted results could be obtained. Therefore, the proposed ber beam-
column model considering torsion effect was suitable for analyzing
the hysteretic behavior of concrete lled steel tube columns subjected
to cyclic torsion.
In order to understand the validity of the model better, some de-
tailed comparison results were given from Fig. 6(c) to Fig. 6(e), includ-
ing the ratio of bending moment to section plastic moment capacity and
the torsion moment to section torsion moment capacity for the speci-
men in nal loading step. (2) The ratio of axial strain over shear strain
in different portions of the section in several load-displacement stages.
(3) The ratio of bending moment capacity and torsion moment capacity
contributed by steel tube and lled concrete. Fromall the detailed com-
parison results, the good agreement could be also observed between
predicted results and test results.
7. Application in curved bridge structures
7.1. Model establishment
In order to investigate the effectiveness of the proposed ber beam-
column model considering torsion effect in global curved bridge struc-
tures, the nite element model for a curved bridge shown in Fig. 7(a)
was established based on the proposed ber beam column model. Fur-
thermore, the shell-solidrened model, whichhad beenwidely used for
predicting mechanical behavior of the concrete lled steel tube col-
umns, was also built inorder to make the comparison about the solution
efciency and precision. The two different nite element models were
shown in Fig. 7(b). Three earthquake waves (Qianan wave, El centro
wave and Taft wave), dened as wave1, wave2 and wave3 respectively,
were applied on each nite element model in the X direction. The accel-
eration time history of each wave was normalized and multiplied by the
intensity magnitude 80 cm/s
2
. In addition, for obtaining a more com-
prehensive comparison results, the nite element model using the tra-
ditional ber-beam column model without consideration of torsion
effect was also established.
7.2. Solution efciency
Table 2 showed the total number of nodes and elements of the two
models, and it could be obviously seen that the number of nodes and el-
ements of the proposed ber beam-column model was much less than
that of the shell-solid rened model. Therefore, the solution efciency
of the proposed ber beam-column model was much higher than that
of the shell-solid rened model, which was denitely veried by the
data given in Table 3.
7.3. Solution precision
Besides the solution efciency, the solution precision was also need-
ed to be compared. Firstly, the rst ve natural frequencies of the curved
bridge calculated by three different models were illustrated in Table 4.
FromTable 4 it could be found that the calculation results of the natural
frequencies between the shell-solid rened model and the proposed
ber beam-column model were similar, but the results calculated by
the tradition ber beam-columnmodel were different fromthose calcu-
lated by the shell-solid rened model.
Fromcalculation results, it could be observed that due to the relative
small earthquake intensity magnitude, the ultimate failure of piers did
90
Y
X
O
R=55m
Pier fixed to girders
1A
2A
3A 3B
2B
1B
1.6m
t=20mm
12.5m
1
.
2
5
m
t=12mm
t=16mm
h=9m
a) Geometrical dimension of curved bridge
Traditional fiber beam element
Traditional fiber beam element
Proposed fiber beam element
Fiber beam column model Shell -solid refined model
b) Finite element models of curved bridges
Fig. 7. Curved steelconcrete composite girder bridges for calculation.
Table 2
Comparison of nodes and elements number.
Shell-solid model Fiber beam-column model
Nodes 11563 221
Elements 7490 220
Table 3
Comparison of solution time (second).
Wave1 Wave2 Wave3
Shell-solid rened model 1468567 2513706 3911988
Traditional ber beam-column model 1935 3994 4299
Proposed ber beam-column model 2459 4905 6125
19 Y. Wang et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 95 (2014) 1021
not occur. As shown in Fig. 8(b), taking the calculation results from the
models subjected to El centro wave for example, it could be observed
that the displacement of the top section of the pier in the Ydirection cal-
culated by the proposed ber beam-column model was similar to that
calculated by the shell-solid rened model, but larger than that calculat-
ed by the traditional ber beam-column model. Since the solution pre-
cision of the shell-solid rened model had been already generally
acknowledged in the literatures available, the comparison results
showed that the proposed ber beam-column model had higher solu-
tion precision for predicting the deformation characteristic of curved
bridges subjected to horizontal earthquake load.
Fig. 8(c) showed the comparison results of the maximal internal
force at the bottom section of the piers of the curved bridge subjected
to the three waves mentioned above. Compared with the results calcu-
lated by the traditional ber beam-column model, the torsion moment
at the bottomsection of the piers calculated by the proposed ber beam
model was obviously smaller, but the bending moment at the bottom
section of the piers calculated by the two different models was similar.
The reason was that the elasticplastic torsion behavior of the section
of the pier could be considered in the proposed ber beam-column
model due to its element constitutive model and material constitutive
law, and the torsion rigidity of the section decreased when the plastic
zone appeared on the section. As the torsion rigidity of the pier de-
creased, the torsional load caused by the earthquake would be reduced.
From the series results above, we could see that compared with the
traditional ber beam-column model, the relative high solution preci-
sion and reasonable results could be obtained using the proposed ber
beam-columnmodel for analyzing the curved bridge structures subject-
ed to the horizontal earthquake load. Furthermore, the solution efcien-
cy of the proposed ber beam-column model was much higher than
that of the three-dimensional shell-solid rened nite element model.
Table 4
Comparison of bridge frequencies.
Mode no. 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th
Shell-solid rened model 1.434 1.101 1.056 0.5 0.464
Traditional ber beam-column model 1.493 1.371 1.099 0.469 0.433
Proposed ber beam-column model 1.401 1.171 1.006 0.457 0.411
-1
-0.5
0
0.5
1
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
a
/
|
a
m
a
x
|
Time(s)
a) Time history of El centro wave
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 0
Time(s) Time(s)
-9
-6
-3
0
3
6
9
Shell-solid model
Proposed model
Traditional fiber beam column model
Proposed model
-9
-6
-3
0
3
6
9
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 0
-45
-30
-15
0
15
30
45
Traditional fiber beam column model
Proposed model
Time(s)
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 0
-45
-30
-15
0
15
30
45
x

(
m
m
)
Time(s)
Shell-solid model
Proposed model
b) Predicted displacement in X and Y direction versus time history results of El centro wave
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
Wave1
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
T
(
k
N
.
m
)
M
(
k
N
.
m
)
Wave2 Wave3
Tranditional fiber beam-column model Proposed fiber beam-column model
Wave1 Wave2 Wave3
Torsion moment Bending moment
c) Predicted torsion and bending moments at bottom section of piers under selected waves
y

(
m
m
)
x

(
m
m
)
y

(
m
m
)
Fig. 8. Calculation results of models subjected to El centro wave.
20 Y. Wang et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 95 (2014) 1021
8. Conclusions
As a supplementary study on the torsion behavior of concrete lled
steel tube columns with circular section, based on the traditional ber
beam-column model for analyzing the axial and exure behavior of
structural members, a newber beam-column element considering tor-
sion effect for analyzing the nonlinear behavior of concrete lled steel
tube columns subjected to compressionbendingtorsion combined ac-
tion was proposed.
The mechanical features of the proposed model could be summa-
rized as following:
(1) The section of the proposed element was divided in to several -
bers, and each ber was at axialshear two dimensional state
which could be calculated from the strain of the section accord-
ing to the geometrical relations.
(2) The two dimensional material constitutive models of the steel
and concrete were introduced into each ber, and the section
forces and stiffness matrix of the section were obtained by inte-
grating the stress of all the bers.
(3) Due to the basic assumption for the mechanical state of eachber
and the two dimensional material constitutive models, the non-
linear torsion behavior of the section could be well simulated
for the beam-column element subjected to axialexuretorsion
combined load.
Compared with the traditional three-dimensional shell-solid rened
nite element model, the proposed ber beam-column model consider-
ing torsion effect had high modeling speed and solution efciency. The
effectiveness of the proposed ber beam-column element used for the
time-history analysis of curved steelconcrete composite girder bridges
could be also observed.
Acknowledgment
The work reported in this paper was supported by the National Sci-
ence Fund of China (51078206). The support is gratefully acknowledged.
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