Fire and post-fire performance of circular steel tube confined reinforced concrete columns

Fire and post-fire behaviours of reinforced concrete columns confined by circular steel tubes, also known as circular steel tube confined reinforced concrete (STCRC) columns, are investigated in this paper. 5 full-scale specimens exposed to fire and 47 specimens after fire exposure were tested. Temperatures across the sections, displacement versus time curves, fire resistance, load versus displacement responses and load-bearing capacities were measured and discussed. A finite element (FE) model was developed using the program ABAQUS, and validated against the test results from the present study. Simplified design methods were proposed for predicting the fire resistance and residual load-bearing capacity of the STCRC columns under and after fire exposure, respectively.