Tubular structures

General

Research has been conducted by the Steel Structures Research Group into a number of areas of tubular construction, including the structural behaviour of elliptical hollow sections, high strength steel tubular members, prestressed tubular structures and concrete-filled steel tubes. The research on elliptical hollow sections now features, in the form of structural design rules, in European and North American design guidance.

Elliptical hollow sections

As the construction industry continues to evolve, innovative products and design techniques are being developed to respond to the ever increasing demands on both the efficiency and aesthetics of civil engineering structures. A recent advance has been the introduction of hot-finished and cold-formed elliptical hollow sections (EHS) for structural application. Following a programme of physical testing and nonlinear finite element modelling of EHS under a range of loading conditions, including compression, bending and combined loading, comprehensive structural design rules were developed. These rules are now impacting on practice through inclusion in European and North American design provisions.

A series of images from the physical testing, finite element modelling and development of design rules are shown below.

Selected references

Chan, T. M. and Gardner, L. (2008). Compressive resistance of hot-rolled elliptical hollow sections. Engineering Structures. 30(2), 522-532.

Chan, T. M. and Gardner, L. (2008). Bending strength of hot-rolled elliptical hollow sections. Journal of Constructional Steel Research. 64(9), 971-986.

Chan, T. M., Gardner, L. and Law, K. H. (2010). Structural design of elliptical hollow sections: a review. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Structures and Buildings. 163(6), 391-402.

McCann, F., Gardner, L. and Qiu, W. (2015). Experimental study of slender concrete-filled elliptical hollow section beam-columns. Journal of Constructional Steel Research. 113, 185-194.