Journal of Constructional Steel Research 157 (2019) 245–259

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Constructional Steel Research

Behaviour of square CFST beam-columns under combined sustained

load and corrosion: FEA modelling and analysis
You-Xing Hua, Lin-Hai Han ⁎, Chao Hou
Department of Civil Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, PR China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper presents a numerical investigation on concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) beam-columns with square
Received 17 July 2018 sections subjected to combined sustained load and corrosion. A general numerical method is used for the
Received in revised form 18 October 2018 simulation of the time dependent behaviour of the core concrete, while the wall-thickness loss of the outer
Accepted 27 January 2019
steel tube induced by corrosion is considered in this model simultaneously. The established finite element anal-
Available online 7 March 2019
ysis (FEA) modelling is verified with test data and used for further investigations of the load-deformation rela-
Keywords:
tionship, load-transfer mechanism, stress and strain development, failure modes and ultimate states on CFST
Concrete-filled steel tubes (CFST) beam-columns when suffering combined sustained load and corrosion. Parametric studies are conducted to
Beam-columns reveal the effects of key parameters, based on which simplified design method is suggested for square CFST
FEA modelling beam-columns under combined sustained load and corrosion.
Ultimate state © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Parametric study
Design method

1. Introduction
Due to the composite effects between the outer steel tube and the
inner concrete, concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) members can suffi-
ciently exploit the advantage of each material to achieve structural bene-
fits. Meanwhile, the outer steel tube can be used as the substitution of
formworks for inner concrete, so that construction convenience can be
simultaneously obtained. Substantial experimental and theoretical re-
search on the performance of CFST members under various short-term
static loading as well as cyclic loading conditions has been conducted, indi-
cating high sectional strength, good ductility and large energy dissipation
capacities [1–8].
However, during the service life of CFST structural members, due to the
shrinkage and creep of core concrete when suffering sustained load, the
mechanical performance will change and deviate from the initial design
states. Besides, with the increasing utilization of CFST members, some of
them serve in severe environments, e.g., coastal area, and suffer corrosion
effects. These time-dependent factors can lead to the deterioration of CFST
members and the decrease of their capacity redundancy, which is crucially
important for the safety of structures. Meanwhile, these factors can inter-
act with each other so that complex coupling effects are induced. Thus the
effects of individual factors cannot simply be added up to replace the actual
case in practice. Instead, a detailed full-range analysis for the overall
⁎ Corresponding author at: Department of Civil Engineering, Tsinghua University,
Beijing 100084, PR China.
E-mail address: lhhan@tsinghua.edu.cn (L.-H. Han).
service process should be presented so that the coupling effects of impor-
tant factors could be revealed.
Fig. 1 shows a typical CFST beam-column served in corrosive environ-
ment, where the wall-thickness loss of outer steel tube as well as the
creep and shrinkage of core concrete will gradually affect the mechanical
property of the member. The effects of combined sustained load and cor-
rosion can lead to a different state compared with the initial design and
causing potential safety risk. Therefore, research on the durability of
CFST members under sustained load and corrosion is of significant
value for the full-range performance-based design of structures.
It should be noted that there are different loading paths for beam-
columns, as showed in Fig. 1. To achieve a final load state, i.e., compres-
sive load of N combined with moment of M, loading path I means a
simultaneously developed moment and compressive load (i.e., eccentric
loading), loading path II means an axial loading stage followed by a flex-
ural loading stage, while loading path III rarely occurs in practice. Load-
ing path I is adopted in this paper while the effects of loading path are
evaluated in the following section.
The time dependent effects of core concrete in CFST members have
been studied previously, namely the shrinkage and creep of concrete
under sustained load [9–18]. These studies indicate that the shrinkage of
core concrete in CFST is significantly smaller than that of conventional
reinforced concrete or pure concrete members due to the enclosed cur-
ing condition provided by the outer steel tube, leading to ignorable
shrinkage. Meanwhile, the enclosed curing with high relative humidity
also leads to decreased drying creep as part of the total creep.
Considering the full-range behavior of CFST members when suffer-
ing combined sustained load and chloride corrosion, experimental and

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcsr.2019.01.027
0143-974X/© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
246 Y.-X. Hua et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 157 (2019) 245–259
M outer steel tube due to corrosion. The model was verified against previ-
Corrosive environment
N CFST beam-column
Outer steel tube Wall-thickness loss
Core concrete Creep and shrinkage
Sustained load
1 1
Section 1-1
N 2. Finite element analysis (FEA) modelling
II (M, N)
II III
I [28]. Previous models based on material subroutine UMAT had been
N M
III
M Loading path
Fig. 1. Typical loading scenario of CFST beam-column served in corrosive environment.
theoretical studies have been conducted recently [19–24]. CFST mem-
bers were tested under electrochemical accelerated corrosion as well
as long-term sustained axial compression, tension or pure bending
before they were loaded to failure. The tests were designed to simulate
the real in-service process of CFST members in practice, i.e., served
under combined sustained load and corrosion whilst failed under in-
creased load caused by sudden events. Corresponding theoretical stud-
ies based on finite element analysis (FEA) modelling were also carried
out. The studies indicate that the effects of combined sustained load
and chloride corrosion can lead to strength reduction of CFST members.
However, due to the composite effects and the load-transferring be-
tween the core concrete and the outer steel tube, the reduction ratios
of CFST were significantly lower than the corresponding hollow steel
members under the same conditions, indicating favorable durability of
the former. Design methods for CFST tensile members, columns and
beams considering sustained load and chloride corrosion were sug-
gested based on detailed parametric studies. However, research on
CFST beam-columns under combined sustained load and corrosion
was rarely reported, indicating essential research need since beam-
columns are among the most commonly used CFST structural members
in practice.
It should also be noted that most current design standards consider
corrosion effects by requesting a corrosion allowance in the design
stage, which is determined by a specified corrosion rate suggested
based on statistics regarding specific environments and materials.
Meanwhile, the time effects of core concrete, e.g., creep and shrinkage,
need to be considered in the serviceability limit state design since
they tend to induce stiffness reduction. Some engineering measures
(e.g., to avoid the usage of mass concrete) are commonly suggested to
reduce the concrete shrinkage in practice, while its corresponding ef-
fects on the ultimate strength were rarely considered quantitively.
However, the time dependent effects of core concrete can lead to the
change of ultimate states, so that lead to variation on stiffness as well
as strength, while the combined effects with corrosion are expected to
result in more complex influences.
This paper thus presents a full-range FEA modelling for square CFST
beam-columns under combined sustained load and corrosion based on
the validation of corresponding test results [25]. The typical loading pro-
cess for CFST beam-columns served in corrosive environment was fully
simulated, namely the initial loading stage, the long-term loading stage,
the corrosion stage and the ultimate loading stage. A model based on
the general numerical method [26] and ACI 209 R-92 creep model
[27] was established and used for the consideration of the time depen-
dent effects of the core concrete, which was verified by previous CFST
tests under long-term sustained load. The “Model Change” technique
[28] was adopted for consideration of the wall-thickness loss of the
ous test data for square CFST beam-columns under combined sustained
load and corrosion. The validated model was then used for further
investigations on the load-displacement relationship, load-transfer
mechanism, ultimate state, damage mechanism and ductility. Paramet-
ric studies were conducted to reveal the effects of key parameters, based
on which simplified design method was suggested and calibrated with
previous test results.
The FEA modelling for square CFST beam-column under combined
sustained load and corrosion was established using ABAQUS package
presented and proved to be reasonable for the simulation of CFST mem-
bers under both sustained load and chloride corrosion [20–23]. On that
basis, this paper presents an improved model with enhanced accuracy
and computational efficiency. Besides, method based on the general
numerical method [26] and ACI 209 R-92 creep model [27] was adopted
to consider the concrete creep, which was validated by previous creep
tests of CFST. The established FEA modelling was validated with corre-
sponding test results and proved to be feasible. Detailed information is
introduced as follows.
2.1. General description
As shown in Fig. 2, considering that the out layer of the steel tube
needs to be removed for the simulation of corrosion, solid element
C3D8R was used for both core concrete and outer steel tube. The solid
elements have been proved to be able to capture the local and overall
buckling for CFST members and give similar results with corresponding
shell elements [29]. Two rigid endplates were used for simulating the
eccentric loading. The ends of both outer steel tube and core concrete
were tied to the endplates, while the other sides of the latter were com-
bined to reference points with an eccentricity of e. One reference point
was set as pinned support while the other as roller support.
A five-stage model considering elastic, elastic-plastic, plastic, hard-
ening and second plastic flow stages was adopted for the outer steel
tube [30]. Concrete model considering the confinement effect presented
in [30] was used as the basic model for the simulation of core concrete.
The concrete model was modified based on the general numerical
method [26] and the ACI 209 R-92 creep model [27] to consider the
time dependent effects of core concrete, details of which are introduced
in the following section.
Hard contact in the normal direction and Coulomb friction model in
the tangential direction were adopted as the contact between the core
concrete and the outer steel tube, while the friction coefficient taken
as 0.6 [6].
2.2. Time-dependent effects of core concrete
The time-dependent effects of core concrete mainly refer to the
shrinkage and creep phenomenon of core concrete under sustained
load. As mentioned before, the outer steel tube provides a relatively
closed environment for the core concrete, shrinkage is therefore greatly
reduced and can be ignored when compared with creep effects [9].
Further considering that the core concrete is mostly cured for at least
28 days and then plastered to eliminate potential shrinkage, the shrink-
age effects are very small and thus ignored in the evaluation of time-
dependent effects for core concrete in this study.
In terms of the calculation for creep, many methods were estab-
lished before, e.g. Effective Modulus Method, Age-adjusted Effective
Modulus Method, Rate of Creep Method, Rate of Flow Method, etc.
These simplified methods can give reasonably good predictions for
the creep deformation in certain circumstances. However, each
method has its inapplicability as well. In CFST members, the outer
 Y.-X. Hua et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 157 (2019) 245–259 247

Fig. 2. A schematic view of the FEA modelling for square CFST beam-columns under combined sustained load and corrosion.

steel tube works together with the core concrete, whereas the load
can transfer from the core concrete to the outer steel tube when con-
crete creep strain grows, leading to decreased concrete load and in-
creased total strain. As a result, the creep of core concrete in CFST
under sustained load is neither a constant-load process nor a relaxa-
tion process. More precisely, a general method for the calculation of
concrete creep under irregular loading process suggested in [26] is
showed as Eq. (1).
Z t
σ ðt 0 Þ σ ðt 0 Þ ∂σ ðτÞ 1 þ φðt; τÞ
εðt Þ ¼ þ  φðt; t 0 Þ þ  dτ
Ec ðt 0 Þ Ec ðt 0 Þ t0 ∂τ Ec ðτÞ
In which, ε is the total strain, σ is the stress, Ec is the elastic modulus
of concrete, t is the time for creep calculation, t0 is the concrete age
of loading and φ is the creep coefficient.
The creep coefficient is a key parameter for the creep calculation and
the method suggested in [27] was adopted herein, while the relative
humidity was taken as 90% to account for the effects of the outer steel
tube, as adopted by previous researchers [18]. Finite difference method
based on mathematical software was adopted to calculate the integra-
tion process, while the time increment was taken as millesimal sust-
ained period based on calculation trails for reasonable results with
adequate precision.
Meanwhile, another factor that has not been considered in previous
research is the aging effect of core concrete [20], namely the time-
dependent strength and stiffness improvement of the concrete material.
Conventionally, the strength and stiffness at the time of failure are taken
as consistent values during the whole service period. However, the
effects of concrete strength and stiffness improvement are obvious,
which will affect the actual strength of the core concrete, the confine-
ment effects between materials, and the corresponding full-range
load-transfer mechanism. Considerations on the concrete aging are
thus incorporated in the current study. To achieve a more precise simu-
lation of the whole loading process, the prediction model in ACI 209
R-92 [27] is adopted for consideration of concrete aging, showed as
Eqs. (2) and (3).
 
0 t 0
f ct ¼  f c28 ð2Þ
ð1Þ a þ bt
qffiffiffiffiffiffi
0
Ec ðt Þ ¼ 4700 f ct ð3Þ
where f ′ct and f ′c28 are the cylinder strength of concrete at any time t (in
days) and 28 days respectively; Ec(t) is the corresponding stiffness at
any time t; a and b are constants used to describe the strength incre-
ments of the concrete provided in [27], which are related to the curing
condition and cement type.
Test results for CFST members under sustained load reported in
[15,16,18] were used to validate the established model for the calcula-
tion of time-dependent effects of CFST under sustained load, detailed
information of the tested specimens are shown in Table 1. The creep
strain versus time relationships are compared between the test results
and the predictions, as shown in Fig. 3, where εce and εcp are the tested
and predicted creep stain at the end of the test, respectively. The mean
value and standard deviation of εce/εcp are 0.988 and 0.145 respectively.
The comparisons indicate that the above mentioned calculation model

Table 1
Information of the specimens for creep tests.

No Specimen Sectional Depth/Diameter Breadth B Tube Loading age t0 Sustained time Sustained load Creep strain εc (με) εce/εcp Ref.
label types D (mm) (mm) wall-thickness (day) t (day) Nl (kN)
Measured Predicted
ts (mm)
εce (με) εcp (με)

1 R2 Rectangular 100 60 2.93 28 180 304 257.8 301.8 0.854 [15]

2 R4 Rectangular 100 80 2.93 28 180 382 267.8 344 0.778
3 R6 Rectangular 120 60 2.93 28 180 338 267.8 300.5 0.891
4 R8 Rectangular 120 90 2.93 28 180 424 235 327.1 0.718
5 S-1-L-1 Square 100 100 2.93 28 120 360 272.6 276.7 0.985 [16]
6 S-2-L-1 Square 120 120 2.93 28 120 470 370.2 295 1.255
7 CFT-0.1-CR Circular 140 – 2 7 460 100 118.8 117.9 1.008 [18]
8 CFT-0.2-CR Circular 140 – 2 7 460 200 256.3 235.7 1.087
9 CFT-0.3-CR Circular 140 – 2 7 460 300 385.8 353.6 1.091
10 CFT-0.4-CR Circular 140 – 2 7 460 400 502 471.4 1.065
11 CFT-0.5-CR Circular 140 – 2 7 460 500 634.2 589.3 1.076
12 CFT-0.6-CR Circular 140 – 2 7 460 600 739.7 707.1 1.046
248 Y.-X. Hua et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 157 (2019) 245–259
is feasible to calculate the time dependent effects for core concrete in
CFST members under sustained load.
2.3. Corrosion effects
The actual corrosion of the outer steel tube in practice are extremely
complicated chemical process, normally combining the phenomenon of
both uniform corrosion and local corrosion (pitting corrosion). The for-
mer phenomenon leads to the wall-thickness loss of outer layer, while
the latter is highly uncertain and needs to be studied with random
and statistical theory. The effects of regular and random pitting corro-
sion on the compressive strength of steel plates has been studied in
[31] with tests on pitting corroded box steel tubes as well as theoretical
simulation using random and statistical methods conducted. To some
extent, pitting corrosion is equivalent to specific uniform corrosion,
with the value of equivalent uniform wall-thickness loss determined ac-
cording to the original and minimum cross sectional area after the
pitting corrosion. This equivalent method proposed in [31] was proved
Fig. 3. Comparisons between the test results and the predictions for creep deformation of CFST members.
to be capable for the tensile strength prediction of steel plates under
pitting corrosion as well by [32]. In practical design, the pitting corro-
sion is also regarded as a uniform corrosion with a discount on the max-
imum pitting corrosion depth by the offshore standard Submarine
Pipeline Systems [33]. Most current codes of practice request the corro-
sion allowance based on a defined specific rate of wall-thickness loss
according to the conditions of environment and material [19]. There-
fore, relevant studies on the effects of uniform corrosion is essential
and with high practical merits, while it lays the basis for further investi-
gation on the actual corrosion status at the meantime.
It should be noted that the effects of wall-thickness loss for CFST mem-
bers caused by uniform corrosion is not a simple equivalent to a CFST
member with thinner outer steel tube, where the key differences can be
realized when considering the combined effects with sustained load.
The load distribution in a thinner CFST would be different with that in a
corroded one after suffering sustained load and corrosion, since the full-
range stress/strain status of the core concrete would be completely differ-
ent, not to mention the further difference in the time-dependent effects.
 Y.-X. Hua et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 157 (2019) 245–259
Meanwhile, regarding the effects of corrosion on steel properties,
some researchers indicated that the effects of corrosion on both the
strength and ductility are negligible for steel bars with yield strength
ranging from 451 to 664 MPa [34]. Yet some researchers found the cor-
rosion can lead to minor reduction of the strength and obvious decrease
of the ductility for steel with strength over 600 MPa [35], while the
mechanism of this reduction was not explained. For ease of design
in practice, the potential changes in steel material property caused
by corrosion were not mentioned in most standards including the
offshore standard Submarine Pipeline Systems [33], and only the wall-
thickness loss was regulated, as mentioned before. Based on the above
facts and the relatively low difference found by corrosion on the steel
properties in the test presented in [25], the steel property was regarded
as unchanged under corrosion.
It should be noted that the change of confinement effects due to
wall-thickness loss during the corrosion process can further lead to
changes in the concrete properties. To address this, different concrete
properties related to the wall-thickness were adopted before and after
the corrosion process [21–24], and automatic switching can be realized
during corrosion process.
2.4. Loading procedure
The loading process was defined to simulate the actual case of CFST
beam-columns served in corrosive environment and damaged when
suffering load increase caused by sudden events, as designed in the
previously reported experimental program [25]. Fig. 4 depicts the full-
range loading process of this model. It should be noted that the time-
dependent effects of the core concrete and the corrosion of the outer
steel tube happen simultaneously in practice, i.e., process ⑤ shown in
Fig. 4. However, the time-dependent effects develop very fast at the
early period and become stable in about 100 days [15], while the corro-
sion is a long process with little occurrence in the early days due to the
coating protection. Therefore, in this model, the creep process was de-
fined to take place before the corrosion process [23], i.e., process
②–③ instead of process ⑤.
Four steps were set in the full-range analysis model, including initial
loading (process ①), creep (process ②), corrosion (process ③) and fail-
ure loading (process ④). In the initial loading step, service load was
applied to the CFST member and kept still in the following steps. During
the creep step, the creep stain change process calculated with the
above mentioned method was used. After that, the “Model Change, Re-
move” technique was adopted to simulate the corrosion of the outer
surface of steel tube, the corrosion depth is approximatively considered
to be uniform according to previous studies [19–24] and the discussions
in section 2.3. For the simulation of corrosion process, it is found from
trials that removing ten corrosion layers one by one has no significant
difference with that when only one layer is removed once. Thus in the
corrosion step, the outer steel tube was cut so that the outermost
Load (Nl)
ĸ ĺ
Service time (t)
Ĺ To evaluate the effects of loading path on the bearing capacity for
ķ Ļ
Time (t)
Corrosive action ķ: initial loading
(Service process) ĸ: creep and shrinkage of core concrete
Ĺ: corrosion of steel tube
ĺ: load increase caused by sudden events (e.g. earthquake, hurricane)
Corrosive action
Ļ: real long-term process in practice
Fig. 4. Schematic view of the loading process.
249
layer is with the defined corrosion depth, which is then removed during
the corrosion step. In the last step, the displacement loading was
applied to the roller support to fail the CFST beam-column, while the
common constitutive relation for the core concrete under short-term
loading was adopted.
2.5. Validations of the FEA modelling
A series of tests on 7 specimens for eccentrically loaded CFST beam-
columns under combined sustained load and corrosion [25] are used to
validate the established FEA modelling. The comparisons of the load
(N)-deformation (Δ) relations between the test results and the FEA pre-
dictions are presented in Fig. 5. It can be seen that good agreement is
achieved in the ascent stage and the slope of later descending stage,
while there is some difference in the early descending stage for some
specimens which is believed to be brought on by the testing method.
Generally speaking, the accuracy of the full-range prediction is accept-
able. Fig. 6 shows the comparisons of typical failure modes. For the
outer steel tube, outward local buckling occurred in the top and side
surfaces near the mid-span area while multiple local buckling occurred
in the top surface. Similar local buckling can also be observed in the
tested members, while the local buckling deviated from the mid-span
area due to possible initial imperfections. In terms of core concrete,
the directions of maximum plastic strain in the FEA model are pre-
sented, which agree with the local concrete crush in the compressive
zone as well as the cracks in tensile zone observed in tests.
In conclusion, good agreements in both the load-deformation rela-
tions and the failure modes are achieved, indicating that the model
is reasonable and precise enough to simulate the full-range behavior
of square CFST beam-columns under combined sustained load and
corrosion.
3. Analytical investigations
The established FEA modelling is adopted to conduct further investi-
gations on the full-range mechanism of square CFST beam-columns
under combined sustained load and corrosion. The coupling effects of
sustained load and corrosion on the load versus deformation relation-
ships, load-transfer mechanism, confinement effects, local buckling
and ultimate states of square CFST beam-columns are revealed based
on the full-range analysis and comparisons.
Parameters of specimen sbc2 in [29] were adopted for the bench-
mark member, with a load ratio of 0.303 and corrosion depth of
0.57 mm. The load ratio is the ratio between the average value of the
long-term sustained load and the theoretical ultimate strength under
short-term loading calculated with DBJ/T13-51-2010 [37].
3.1. Effects of loading paths
Three different loading paths for CFST beam-columns are shown in
Fig. 1. As stated before, loading path III is uncommon in practice and is
thus not considered in this paper. For loading paths I and II, the former
is corresponding to the eccentric loading process used in the tests [25]
while the latter indicates an axial loading serving state and a sudden
increasing of flexural load caused by special events, e.g., earthquake
or wind.
CFST beam-columns under different circumstances, the N-M curves
are compared between loading paths I and II in Fig. 7. It can be seen
that for CFST beam-columns under either short-term loading or com-
bined sustained load and corrosion, no significant difference can be
found between the corresponding N-M curves. For scenarios with the
same axial load over bending moment ratio, the difference of the ulti-
mate load between loading paths I and II is less than 1%. Thus the effects
of loading path on the bearing capacity are ignored and loading path I is
chosen for the analytical investigations in the following sections.
250 Y.-X. Hua et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 157 (2019) 245–259

Fig. 5. Comparisons of the load (N)-deformation (Δ) relations between the test results and the FEA prediction.
 Y.-X. Hua et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 157 (2019) 245–259 251

Fig. 6. Comparisons of typical failure modes between the test results and the FEA prediction.

It should be noted that in practice, shear effects may vary under differ-
ent loading paths for beam-column members and thus have potential
influence on their bearing capacity and N-M curves, which might need
specific evaluation in future studies.
3.2. Load-deformation relations
As mentioned above, the full-range service of the specimens in real
practice is considered as three stages, the initial loading of service
load, the long-term sustained load and corrosion as well as the failure
under an increasing load caused by sudden events (e.g. earthquake, hur-
ricane). The real load-deformation relationship thus differs from that
under ideal short-term loading. Fig. 8 shows the comparison of typical
full-range load (N) versus axial deformation (Δ) curves for the bench-
mark member and its counterpart under short-term loading.
The curve O-A-B-C for member under short-term loading can be di-
vided into three characteristic stages: (1) O-A is the linear initial loading
stage, while the service loading is achieved in point A; (2) A-B is the
pre-peak stage, the plasticity of materials develop gradually, while the
ultimate strength is reached in point B; (3) B-C is the key post-peak
stage, in which point C is the point corresponding to the 85% of ultimate
load in the post-peak stage, which is used to evaluate the ductility of the
member [36].
Curve O-A-A′-B′-C′ for the benchmark member under combined
sustained load and corrosion can be divided into four stages: (1) O-A
is the initial loading stage, the same as the member under short-term
loading; (2) A-A′ is the long-term stage suffering sustained load and
corrosion, due to the time dependent effects of core concrete and the
stiffness reduction caused by corrosion-induced wall-thickness loss of
outer steel tube, the deformation increases while the load is kept consis-
tent; (3) A′-B′ is the pre-peak stage with similar plasticity development
of materials; (4) B′-C′ is the key post-peak stage reflecting the ductility
of the member.
Despite the same initial loading stage, stiffness and ultimate strength
reduction can be observed when suffering combined sustained load and
corrosion. The creep and shrinkage of core concrete leads to the increase
of deformation under the same level of load, while the wall-thickness
loss leads to the decrease of sectional stiffness. As a result, both the

Fig. 7. Effects of the loading path on the bearing capacity of CFST beam-columns.
252 Y.-X. Hua et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 157 (2019) 245–259
Fig. 8. Comparison of the typical full-range load (N)-deformation (Δ) curves.
secant and tangent stiffness decrease in the pre-peak stage when suffer-
ing combined sustained load and corrosion, while the ultimate load de-
creases by 12.2%.
Meanwhile, the deformation values corresponding to the ultimate
load and 85% of ultimate load in the post-peak stage increase obviously
when compared with the member under short-term loading. It can be
explained that the creep and shrinkage of core concrete under sustained
load leads to the load-transfer from the core concrete to the outer steel
tube, which induces a massive drop of the concrete stress. Thus in the
pre-peak stage, the stress level of core concrete lags and is kept lower
than the corresponding member under short-term loading, leading to
larger deformation at the ultimate load.
3.3. Load-transferring mechanism
The load-transferring between core concrete and outer steel tube is
one of the key components of the composite effects in CFST members.
When suffering combined sustained load and corrosion, the load-
transferring is more significant. The time-dependent effects of core con-
crete (e.g. creep and shrinkage) induce the load to transfer from the core
concrete to the outer steel tube, while the corrosion of the outer steel
tube leads to an opposite transferring path. The combination of these
two effects leads to the redistribution of the load along the cross-
section so that the full-range behavior of the CFST members are affected.
Fig. 9 shows the comparisons of the axial load and moment distribu-
tion between the core concrete and the outer steel tube under short-
term loading and combined sustained load and corrosion. As can be
seen, after the initial loading stage, there is a sudden drop from 52.5%
to 37.1% for the load carried by the core concrete, which is induced by
its time-dependent effects. After that, owing to the corrosion of steel,
the value increases from 37.1% to 41.2%. It indicates that the load-
transferring caused by sustained load is more significant than that by
corrosion, resulting in lower load-carry proportion of core concrete
0.8
Short-term loading
With corrosion
Ncon/Ntotal
0.6
N /N total
0.4
Ntube/Ntotal
0.2
0 2 4 6
∆ (mm)
(a) Axial load distribution
Fig. 9. Load distribution between the core concrete and the outer steel tube.
after the long-term loading and corrosion period. However, the perc-
entage of load carried by core concrete increases gradually after the
long-term loading and corrosion period, which is larger than that in
short-term loaded members before the ultimate load is reached.
In conclusion, the load increase on the core concrete induced by cor-
rosion is less significant when compared to the load decrease caused by
its time-dependent effects under sustained load, which leads to the
drop of concrete stress after long-term period. However, the core
concrete carries a larger proportion of the load at ultimate state under
combined sustained load and corrosion. This mechanism can vividly
represent the collaborative characteristic of the outer steel tube and
the core concrete in CFST beam-columns, which is one of the factors
contributing to the good durability of such composite members.
3.4. Load-strain relations
Fig. 10 presents the load versus strain relations of the outer steel
tube in the top and bottom surface along the mid-span section under
different conditions, where εs and εy represents the actual strain and
yield strain of the steel. It is obvious that the steel in the top surface is
sufficiently exploited, while that in the bottom surface is far from yield-
ing when reaching the ultimate load. The steel in the top surface thus
has more significant effects on the ultimate load of the member.
As showed in Fig. 10(a), the transverse strains almost reach the yield
strain as soon as the ultimate loads are reached, while the loads keep
increasing after the longitudinal strains reach yielding. The loads corre-
sponding to the yield strain are 90.3% and 80.3% of the ultimate loads for
the members under short-term loading and combined sustained load
and corrosion respectively, so that the load-improvement after steel
yield is more significant when suffering long-term effects, indicating
good durability of square CFST beam-columns. Considering the effects
of combined sustained load and corrosion, the effects can lead to an ob-
vious decrease in the ultimate load as well as the stiffness. Meanwhile,
the longitudinal strain corresponding to the ultimate load increases
when suffering combined sustained load and corrosion, owing to the
postponed ultimate state caused by the lag of concrete stress.
The longitudinal strains of the bottom surface are in compression in
the pre-peak stage and part of post-peak stage, which then change to
the tension in the following failure stage. This attributes to the increase
of the moment applied on the mid-span section induced by the increase
of mid-span displacement, i.e., the second-order effects.
3.5. Failure modes
The long-term effects, i.e., sustained load and corrosion, can alter the
load-transferring process as well as the composite effects, and thus lead
to the effects on the failure mode simultaneously. Fig. 11 presents the
comparisons of the failure modes between members under short-
term loading and those under combined sustained load and corrosion.
0.9
0.7 Mtube/Mtotal
M/M total
Short-term loading
0.5 With corrosion
0.3 Mcon/Mtotal
0.1
0 2 4 6
∆ (mm)
(b) Moment distribution
 Y.-X. Hua et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 157 (2019) 245–259
Transversal
1200
800 εy
N (kN) εy Longitudinal
Short-term loading
400 With corrosion
0 0
-5000 0 5000 10000
(a) top surface
Fig. 10. Load versus strain curves of the outer steel tube at the mid-span section.
In terms of the local buckling of outer steel tube, similar outward buck-
ling can be found in the top and side surfaces. However, the area of local
buckling enlarges at both the top and side surfaces, which is mainly in-
duced by the decrease of the steel tube wall-thickness. Meanwhile, the
area of core concrete crush is corresponding to the tube buckling, which
is enlarged as well when suffering combined sustained load and corro-
sion. This mainly attributes to two factors, large local buckling area of
the outer steel tube and weaker confinement effect from the steel
tube due to the wall-thickness loss. The difference of failure modes
shown from the FEA results agrees with the description in the compan-
ion paper [25].
3.6. Stress state
Fig. 12 shows the concrete stress distribution along the mid-span
section at the characteristic points in the full-range load-deformation
curves in Fig. 8. Axial stress is presented here, where compressive stress
is defined as positive. As can be seen, the whole section of the core con-
crete under both service load and ultimate load is in compression,
which dues to the small eccentricity. It should be noted that tensile
stress is then observed in the post-peak stage when the second-
order effects tend to be significant with the increase of the mid-span
displacement.
Under the coupling effects of sustained load and corrosion, the axial
compressive stress of the core concrete decreases under both service
load and ultimate load, while the reduction percentage is lower under
the latter. Meanwhile, the neutral axis under ultimate load moves
upward when suffering combined sustained load and corrosion, which
is due to the reduction of the steel tube area.
Fig. 13 gives a specific demonstration of the stress condition
in the core concrete. Three situations are compared in this figure,
Fig. 11. The effects of combined sustained load and corrosion on the failure modes.
253
1200
Longitudinal
εy
800
Transversal
N (kN)
400 εy
Short-term loading
With corrosion
15000 -2500 0 2500 5000
(b) bottom surface
i.e., short-term loading, long-term loading and combined sustained
load and corrosion. σMises is the Mises stress indicating the stress level,
while σp is the compressive stress in the normal direction of the contact
surface which can reflect the confinement effect on the core concrete
provided by the steel tube. The vertical virgules are corresponding to
the states with ultimate loads. Considering the effects of sustained
load, significant lag effects of concrete stress under sustained load can
be observed. Besides, the maximum Mises stress increases by 8.4%
when suffering sustained load, while the effects of combined sustained
load and corrosion lead to a lower increase of 6.4%. The ultimate load is
reached with the maximum Mises stress for member under short-term
loading, while for members with long-term loading and combined
sustained load and corrosion, the ultimate loads are reached before
the maximum Mises stress is developed. It can be explained that the
local buckling of outer steel tube dominates the ultimate state instead
of the concrete stress due to the lag effects, the mechanism of which
will be discussed in further sections. It should be noted that the increase
of the average value in σMises at the peak points does not indicate the
increase of concrete strength rather than due to the stress concentration
in the corner.
In terms of the confinement effect, the average normal stress has an
obvious decrease in a specific period when suffering long-term loading,
while the stress comes back to a similar level later. Meanwhile, the con-
tact stress decreases in the whole period when suffering combined
sustained load and corrosion. It can be explained that the lag effects of
concrete stress caused by sustained load can lead to relatively smaller
expansion under Poisson's effects, resulting in the decrease of contact
stress in earlier period. Moreover, corrosion can induce the reduction
of the confinement effect, especially when corrosion is fully developed.
For the stress state of the outer steel tube, Fig. 14 presents the Mises
stress and the transverse stress in the center of the top surface, which is
254 Y.-X. Hua et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 157 (2019) 245–259

Ultimate load
30
Short-term
Long-term
With corrosion
20

σ t(N/mm 2 )
10

0
0 150 300 450
σ Mises(N/mm 2 )

Fig. 14. Stress conditions of the steel tube in the center of the top surface.

situations can be divided by one critical circumstance described

Fig. 12. Concrete stress distribution at the mid-span section (stress unit: N/mm2).
also in the mid-span section where the local buckling occurs. The three
labelled points in Fig. 14 represent the statuses corresponding to the
ultimate loads. The effects of sustained load and combined sustained
load and corrosion on the σMise-σt curves are similar in the pre-peak
stage. The transverse stress corresponding to the same level of Mises
stress decreases at both cases. It can be explained that the shrinkage
and creep of core concrete leads to the reduction of concrete stress
and induces the decrease of expansion effect, which further affects the
contact stress and the transverse stress. In terms of stress status corre-
sponding to the ultimate load, the transverse stress increases when suf-
fering sustained load, and relatively decreases when corrosion is
applied. This phenomenon also attributes to the lag of concrete stress
under sustained load and easier buckling of steel tube under corrosion.
3.7. Effects of sustained load on the ultimate states
Further consideration on the lag of concrete stress in the
pre-peak stage indicates that the effects of sustained load on the ul-
timate sectional strength of CFST members are more complex than a
simple reduction.
As shown in Fig. 15, there are two factors dominating the ulti-
mate state for CFST members, i.e., 1) the local buckling of outer
steel tube and 2) the reach of maximum concrete stress. For mem-
bers dominated by factor 1 under short-term loading, i.e., situation
1 in Fig. 15, due to the lag of concrete stress, the ultimate strength
will decrease with lower level of exertion of the concrete strength.
For members dominated by factor 2 under short-term loading,
below, shown as situation 2 in Fig. 15. In situation 2, due to the lag
of concrete stress, the strain gets a further increase and the domi-
nant factor switches to factor 1. Then considering the enlarged stress
of steel tube under higher strain and insufficient exertion of concrete
strength, the ultimate strength can reach the same value with that
under short-term loading. Situation 2 can thus be considered as a
diving point, if the exertion of concrete strength is higher than situ-
ation 2 or factor 2 keeps dominance (i.e., situation 3), the ultimate
load will increase under long-term sustained load while the contrary
situation (including situation 1) will lead to reduction effect.
The test data in [38] give some examples for the improvement
effects of long-term loading on the ultimate strength of CFST mem-
bers, while [19,21] give the examples for the reduction effects. It
should be noted that the domination of factor 1 and factor 2 is
affected not only by the steel ratio, but also by the sectional type
and the material properties.
3.8. Effects of corrosion on the ultimate states
The effects of concrete creep and shrinkage on the ultimate strength
have been discussed in section 3.7, with the mechanism revealed in
Fig. 15. Another key factor needs to be evaluated is the corrosion of
outer steel tube. Actually, the effects of corrosion can be concluded as
three aspects: 1) the reduction of the cross-sectional area of steel
tube, 2) the decrease of the confinement effects and 3) the effects on
the local buckling of steel tube. The effective confinement factor (ξe)
can be calculated as follows:
Ase  f y
ξe ¼ ð4Þ
Ac  f ck
where Ac is the cross-sectional area of core concrete, Ase is the effective
cross-sectional area of outer steel tube after corrosion, fy and fck is the
yield strength of steel and the characteristic strength of concrete

Ultimate load Ultimate load

60 12
Top edge Short-term Short-term
Long-term Long-term
With corrosion 9 With corrosion
40 σMises
σ (N/mm 2 )

σ (N/mm 2 )

6
σp
20
3

0 0
0 2 4 6 8 0 2 4 6 8
Δ (mm) Δ (mm)
(a) Mises stress (b) Contact stress

Fig. 13. Average stress conditions of the core concrete in the top edge of mid-span section.
 Y.-X. Hua et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 157 (2019) 245–259
Fig. 15. The effects of long-term loading on the ultimate load in different situations.
respectively. The factor which can reflect the confinement effects
between the core concrete and the outer steel tube, is reduced under
corrosion.
The first aspect, i.e., the reduction of the cross-sectional area of steel
tube, is the direct effect corresponding to the reduction of the wall-
thickness of steel tube. This can lead to the reduction of the cross-
sectional stiffness and strength for both compressive and flexural
load, and it thus works similarly for column, beam and beam-column
members.
For the second aspect, i.e., the decrease of the confinement effect, it
should be noted that the confinement effect is very important for the
material property of the core concrete. Higher confinement factor can
lead to smoother descent stage, which is beneficial to the strength and
ductility of the members [8]. A vivid reflection of the confinement effect
is the contact force between the core concrete and the outer steel tube.
Fig. 16 shows the effects of corrosion on the contact force between steel
and concrete in typical CFST column, beam and beam-column, where p
is the total contact force in a specific mid-span zone in the normal direc-
tion while the tagged points in the figures correspond to the ultimate
load. It can be seen that, the corrosion effect leads to significant reduc-
tion of the contact force. More specifically, for CFST column, there is nor-
mally an obvious increase of contact force in the post-peak stage, while
the corrosion effect is found to substantially weaken this tendency.
The weaken effect on the contact force, i.e., confinement effects, is
relatively insignificant for CFST beam, while CFST beam-column falls
in between.
Short-term
loading
120
Beam-column
Column
90
p (kN)
60
30 With corrosion
0 0
0 2 4 6
Δ (mm)
(a) Column and beam-column
Fig. 16. Effects of corrosion on the contact force in CFST column, beam and beam-column.
255
The third aspect is the local buckling of the outer steel tube. Thinner
wall-thickness of outer steel tube means higher width-to-thickness
ratio of the CFST section, and will normally induce the local buckling
to occur easier. As showed in Fig. 14, compared with the member
under sustained load, the effects of corrosion lead to the ultimate state
with lower transverse stress of the steel tube.
Comparatively speaking, the factor of local buckling is more signifi-
cant for CFST beams due to the easy-occurred buckling in the compres-
sive zone, whilst it is relatively insignificant for CFST columns because of
the more effective inner support of concrete. The beam-column again
falls in between owing to the combined loading condition.
Considering the combined effects of sustained load and corrosion,
many factors need to be rationally considered. In terms of concrete,
the effects of sustained load can lead to the lag of concrete stress,
while the corrosion effects can induce degradation of the concrete
stress-strain relation at the post-peak stage. On the other hand, the
state of outer steel tube is affected by not only the wall-thickness loss in-
duced by corrosion, but also the load-transfer process which is highly
related to the state of core concrete.
4. Parameter analysis and simplified design model
4.1. Parameter analysis
The degree of corrosion (β) defined as Δts/ts presented in [23] is
adopted herein to reflect the corrosion effects. One circumstance should
120
90
Short-term
p (kN)
loading
60
30
With corrosion
8 0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2
θ (rad)
(b) Beam
256 Y.-X. Hua et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 157 (2019) 245–259

be considered is that high degree of corrosion can lead to an over-limit 1.2

Short-term
short
wide-to-thickness ratio out of the regulation range in current codes. 1 Long-term,
long β=0
Therefore, a numerical study was conducted to evaluate this issue. Pa- 0.3
Long-term, β=0.3
rameters of the simulated typical CFST member are as follows: B = 0.8 0.6
Long-term, β=0.6

N /N u
140 mm, ts = 3.26 mm, α = 0.01, Le = 1400 mm, fy = 345 N/mm2, 0.6
fcu = 40 N/mm2, Es = 2.08 × 105 N/mm2, Ec = 3.25 × 104 N/mm2.
0.4
With the degree of corrosion (β) varied between 0.1 and 0.7, the re-
duction rate of the compressive strength is between 4.5% and 42.4%, 0.2
while that of the flexural strength is between 8.7% and 64.6%. The com-
0
pressive and flexural capacity of this CFST member under different 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
degrees of corrosion are compared with the strength calculated using M /M u
DBJ/T13-51-2010 [37] and Eurocode 4 [39], as showed in Fig. 17. Nu
and Mu is the ultimate load for compressive and flexural members pre- Fig. 18. Effects of sustained load and corrosion on the normalized N-M curves.
dicted by the FEA models, while Nuc and Muc is the corresponding
strength calculated using modified methods based on code equations
presented in [20]. The calculation methods of the sectional compressive the effects of combined sustained load and corrosion on the interaction
and the flexural capacity are as follows: N-M curve, the normalized curves of the typical CFST beam-columns
under short-term loading, long-term loading and combined sustained
Nuc ¼ ð1:18 þ 0:85ξe Þ  f ck  ðAse þ Ac Þ ð5Þ load and corrosion are compared in Fig. 18. One characteristic point
with the largest bending moment for each curve is defined as the “con-
Muc ¼ ½1:04 þ 0:48 ln ðξe þ 1Þ  ð1:18 þ 0:85ξe Þf ck  Be 3 =6 ð6Þ tra-flexure point”, which splits the interaction curve into two parts
with different failure modes. The part with larger compressive load
0 than the contra-flexure point is dominated by the compressive failure
Nuc ¼ f c  Ase þ f c  Ac ð7Þ
of core concrete in the compressive zone, while the rest part by the ten-
  sile failure of outer steel tube. The contra-flexure point thus corresponds
M uc ¼ f y  t se  1:5Be 2 −3Be  t se þ 2t se 2
0
to the failure state for these two failure occurring simultaneously. The
f y  f c  t se  Be ð8Þ
þ0:5ðBe −2t se Þ2  coordinates of the contra-flexure point (ζo, ηo) for the sectional normal-
0
4f y  t se þ fc  Be ized N-M curve are calculated as follows [40]:

where ξe, Ase, Be and tse stand for the effective confinement factor,
the effective sectional area, the effective outside dimension and the
effective wall-thickness of outer steel tube after corrosion, respectively.
Eqs. (3) and (4) are based on DBJ/T13-51-2010 [37], while Eqs. (5) and
(6) are based on Eurocode 4 [39].
Generally, current codes show conservative results. It should be
noted that there are limitations in terms of wide-to-thickness ratio for
CFST members in existing codes, which were derived from the evalua-
tion of local buckling for hollow steel tubes and differ in different
codes. For example, 1.5 times of the limitation for hollow steel tube is
adopted as that for corresponding CFST in DBJ/T13-51-2010 [37]
(60√235/fy), which is a relatively loose limit compared with Eurocode
4 [39] (52√235/fy). However, no significant inapplicability of current
codes is found when the wide-to-thickness ratio exceed these limita-
tions. For compressive CFST members, the Nu/Nuc value decreases with
the increase of degree of corrosion (β), however it stays larger than 1,
indicating that the relevant code equations are still conservative when
the wide-to-thickness ratio exceeds their limitations. In term of flexural
CFST members, the safety margin of the code equations are even larger
for over-limit wide-to-thickness ratios.
The key factors for CFST members under sustained load and corro-
sion are the degree of corrosion and the sustained load. To evaluate
−1:3
ζ o ¼ 0:14ξ þ1 ð9Þ

0:5−0:318  ξ ðξ≤0:4Þ
ηo ¼ −0:81 ð10Þ
0:1 þ 0:13  ξ ðξN0:4Þ
As can be seen in Fig. 18, the long-term loading shows negligible ef-
fects on the normalized N-M curves. However, when subjected to com-
bined sustained load and corrosion, the N/Nu value and the M/Mu value
corresponding to the balance point increase, which attributes to the
decrease of confinement factor induced by corrosion. As shown in
Eqs. (7) and (8), there is a negative correlation between the confine-
ment factor and the value of coordinates of the contra-flexure point,
which agrees with the conclusion drawn in Fig. 18.
The key parameters discussed here include the steel ratio (α), yield
strength of steel (fy), cube strength of core concrete (fcu) and the degree
of corrosion (β). The effects of these parameters on the normalized N-M
curves are calculated and presented in Fig. 19. In terms of the degree of
corrosion, the increase of β can lead to the outward moving of normal-
ized curves and the increase in coordinates of the contra-flexure points
(if exists), which is valid for all types of members considered. This phe-
nomenon has been concluded above to be induced by the decrease
of confinement factor due to corrosion. On the other hand, the steel

1.2 1.2
M u /M uc
N u /N uc

1 1
Nu=Nuc Nu=Nuc
0.8 0.8

0.6 DBJ/T13-51-2010 0.6 DBJ/T13-51-2010

Eurocode 4 Eurocode 4
0.4 0.4
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8

Fig. 17. Effects of corrosion on the capacity of CFST members with over-limit wide-to-thickness ratio.
 Y.-X. Hua et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 157 (2019) 245–259 257

Fig. 19. Influence of salient parameters on the normalized N-M curves.

ratio, yield strength of steel and cube strength of core concrete show sig-
nificant influence on the shape of the normalized N-M curves. The
pump-up of the curve is more significant with lower α, higher fcu and
lower fy, which can be concluded with lower confinement factor (ξ).
The influence laws of these parameters are similar with the square
CFST beam-columns under short-term loading. In general, the influence
of long-term loading is not obvious, whilst the influence of corrosion
can be regarded as equivalent with that of decreased tubular wall-
thickness.
4.2. Simplified design method
The current design methods in existing codes are used to calculate
the bearing capacity of square CFST beam-columns under combined
sustained load and corrosion. The method in DBJ/T13-51-2010 [37,40]
is adopted and compared with the results of FEA models in Fig. 20,
where Nuc is the calculated strength using the code and NuFEA is pre-
dicted result by the presented FEA models. For square CFST beam-
columns with β of 0, 0.2 and 0.4, the mean values of Nuc/NuFEA are
258 Y.-X. Hua et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 157 (2019) 245–259

3000 +10% 3000 +10%

NuFEA(kN)
NuFEA(kN)
2000 -10% 2000 -10%

Nuc=NuFEM Nuc=NuFEM

1000 1000
Nuc/NuFEM Nuc/NuFEM
Mean: 0.947 Mean: 0.922
STD: 0.056 STD: 0.045
0 0
0 1000 2000 3000 0 1000 2000 3000
Nuc(kN) Nuc(kN)
(1) β=0 (2) β=0.2

3000 +10%
NuFEA(kN)

2000 -10%
Nuc=NuFEM

1000
Nuc/NuFEM
Mean: 0.911
STD: 0.035
0
0 1000 2000 3000
Nuc(kN)
(3) β=0.4

Fig. 20. Comparisons of the calculated and predicted strength with different β.

0.947, 0.922 and 0.911 respectively, while the standard deviation values
are 0.056, 0.045 and 0.035. Therefore, the equivalent method is consid-
ered good enough for the prediction of strength for square CFST beam-
columns under combined sustained load and corrosion, the method
tends to be more conservative with higher degree of corrosion.
It should be noted that Eurocode 4 [39] only provides the sectional
N-M curves, while the second order effects need to be further consid-
ered with specific analysis. The equivalent method in Eurocode 4 [39]
is thus not compared here. However, it can be speculated that the equiv-
alent method is applicable for the Eurocode 4 [39] prediction as well.
Moreover, it has been concluded above that the code equations for
compressive CFST members are still applicable when the wide-to-
thickness ratio exceeds the code limitation. However, the ductility and
construction performance (e.g. transportation, connection feasibility)
may not be safe for practical application. As a result, the safety risk of
over-limit wide-to-thickness ratio caused by corrosion should be care-
fully assessed in practice.
5. Conclusions
The following conclusions can be drawn based on the current lim-
ited studies:
(1) Considering the aging, shrinkage and creep effects of the core
concrete as well as the corrosion of the outer steel tube, a finite
element analysis (FEA) modelling based on general numerical
method, ACI 209-R-92 creep model and “Model Change, Re-
move” technique is proposed for the full-range analysis of square
CFST beam-columns under combined sustained load and corro-
sion. The model is validated against previous test data obtained
from creep tests and combined sustained load and accelerated
corrosion tests on CFST members.
(2) The concrete aging and loading paths are proved to have negligi-
ble effects on the strength of square CFST beam-columns under
combined sustained load and corrosion (less than 0.05% and 1%,
respectively). On the other hand, for the benchmark member
with a load ratio of 0.303 and corrosion depth of 0.57 mm, the
sustained load and corrosion induce the load proportion carried
by core concrete to decrease by 15.4% and then increase by 4.1%
successively, while the ultimate load reduces by 12.2%.
(3) The effects of sustained load will induce lag of concrete stress and
lead to either increase or decrease of strength (depends on the
change of ultimate state). The effects of corrosion on CFST are di-
vided into three aspects: the reduction of the steel tubular cross-
sectional area, the decrease of material confinement and the
effects on the local buckling of steel tube. The first aspect is rela-
tively similar for different member types due to its direct influ-
encing mechanism. The second aspect is more significant for
column members, while the third aspect affects the beam mem-
bers more.
(4) Base on parametric analysis, equivalent method based on current
design code is suggested and validated with predicted results
from the FEA model, which is proved to be precious enough for
the prediction of strength for square CFST beam-columns under
combined sustained load and corrosion. The safety margin of the
equivalent method is larger with higher degree of corrosion, even
with over-limit wide-to-thickness ratios induced by corrosion.
It should be noted that the actual process and the affecting factors for
CFST beam-columns under combined sustained load and corrosion are
 Y.-X. Hua et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 157 (2019) 245–259 259

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