Experimental investigation into the transverse impact performance of high-strength circular CFST members

Both high-strength steel and high-strength concrete are gaining increasing use in the construction industry. At the same time, the benefits of composite construction are also being increasingly recognized and exploited. In the present study, high-strength steel and high-strength concrete are considered in combination in high-strength concrete-filled high-strength steel tubular (HSCFST) members, with a focus on their behaviour under transverse impact loading, resistance to which is important for resilient infrastructure. Tests on thirteen HSCFST specimens and six reference CFST specimens under drop weight impact loading are presented. Hot-finished high-strength S890 steel sections were employed for the outer tubes of the HSCFST specimens, while hot-finished S355 steel tubes were used for the reference CFST specimens. Two core concrete strengths of approximately 60 MPa and 100 MPa were considered. The instantaneous impact force and deformation histories of the specimens were recorded at high frequencies throughout the impact process. A single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) model was developed and used to facilitate the analysis of the experimental results. The dynamic moment capacities of the test specimens were obtained using the developed SDOF model and a dynamic increase factor (Rd) was introduced to quantify the enhancement in moment capacity relative to the static values. The influence of the test parameters on the dynamic increase factors was then analysed. The test results indicated that Rd is positively correlated with the impact velocity and negatively correlated with the steel grade, steel ratio and specimen length, while being insensitive to the concrete strength.