ABSTRACT
Infilled concrete is one of the ways to increase the stiffness and the load carrying capacity of aluminum tubular columns. Concrete-filled aluminum tubular columns can effectively take advantages of these two materials to provide both high strength and high stiffness. These findings have been reported by Zhou and Young (2008) for concrete-filled aluminum square and rectangular hollow section (SHS and RHS) stub columns and Zhou and Young (2009) for concretefilled aluminum circular hollow section (CHS) stub columns. Zhou andYoung (2008) reported an experimental investigation of concrete-filled aluminum SHS and RHS composite columns. It was shown that the stiffness and the load carrying capacity of the composite columns improve compared with the aluminum SHS andRHS tubular columnswithout concrete infill. Local buckling of the aluminum SHS and RHS tubes was found for specimens with slender sections. Generally, the composite columns failed by the aluminum tubes splitting near the corner of the SHS and RHS sections. Zhou and Young (2009) reported a series of tests on concrete-filled aluminum CHS composite columns. It was also shown that the stiffness and the load carrying capacity of the composite columns improve compared with the aluminum CHS tubular columns without concrete infill. The failure modes of the aluminum tubes splitting were not observed for CHS composite columns.
