Time-dependent in-plane behaviour and buckling of concrete-filled steel tubular arches

This paper presents a theoretical analysis for the time-dependent behaviour and buckling of concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) circular arches due to shrinkage and creep of the concrete core under a sustained uniform radial load. The algebraically tractable age-adjusted effective modulus method is used to model the time-dependent behaviour of the concrete core, based on which the differential equations of equilibrium for the time-dependent analysis of CFST arches are derived and analytical solutions for the long-term displacements, stresses and internal forces of CFST arches under the sustained load are obtained. It is shown that the visco-elastic effects of creep and shrinkage of the concrete core have significant long-term effects on the in-plane structural behaviour of CFST arches. The long-term radial and axial displacements, as well as the bending moment, increase substantially with time. For a CFST arch with a low area ratio of the steel tube to the concrete core, the long-term deformations may be excessive and affect the serviceability of the CFST arch. The increases of the long-term stresses in the steel tube with time are significant, while the long-term stresses in the concrete core decrease with time and may change from compressive to tensile if the time is sufficiently long. It is demonstrated that the time-dependent change of the equilibrium configuration of the CFST arch can lead to a buckling configuration being attained in the time domain under a sustained load, which is lower than the buckling loads of the CFST arch under short-term loading. The solution for the possible prebuckling structural life for time-dependent creep buckling of deep CFST arches is derived and can be used to determine the effects of various parameters on the creep buckling of a CFST arch.