INTERNATIONAL ASSESSMENT OF DESIGN GUIDANCE FOR COMPOSITE COLUMNS

This paper reviews the current state of design code provisions for composite steel/concrete columns from West Europe, North America, Japan and the People's Republic of China, in addition to draft proposals from East Europe and Australia. A general comparison of code recommendations in terms of design basis, slenderness considerations, material properties and dimensional limitations is presented. This is followed by a quantitative assessment of capacity calculation for a specific cross-section under axial loading and combined axial loading and flexure. A range of slenderness (in terms of equivalent length divided by relevant section dimension) from zero to 30 is covered. It is concluded that large discrepancies exist between codes, even those using essentially the same design methodology, and sometimes the same experimental data base. This emphasizes the case for harmonization to arrive at a higher degree of uniformity of code design procedures and more rational safety margins. © 1990.