Experimental study on seismic performance of cold-formed thin-walled steel-concrete composite column-H steel beam frame

Abstract

Abstract For the light-weight steel frame structures consisting of cold-formed thin-walled steel-concrete composite columns and H-shaped steel beams, the seismic performance comparison tests and numerical simulation analyses were performed for the bare frame and the infilled frame. The effects of the lightweight wall panels, the axial compression ratio and the steel wall thickness of composite columns on the seismic properties of the structure have been investigated. The failure of the bare frame is concentrated in the weld fracture at the beam-column joints. When the infilled is embedded in the frame, the damage is concentrated at the corners and edges of the wall panel, and at the connectors. Wall panel significantly improves the frame’s initial stiffness, early energy dissipation and extreme load, with the wall panel energy dissipation rate as high as 91% at the beginning. As the axial compression ratio increases, the extreme load on the structure is significantly reduced. Under monotonic loading, the extreme load on the structure with axial compression ratio 0.4 is reduced by nearly 44% compared to the structure without axial compression. Increasing the wall steel thickness of the composite column increases the load-bearing capacity of the structure, but the increase diminishes with increasing wall thickness.