Experimental behavior of concrete filled double steel tubular (CFDST) members under low velocity drop weight impact

•We presented experiments on thirty-one CFDST members under lateral impact.•We conducted a full-range analysis on CFDST members under impact.•We discussed the effect of some main parameters on the behavior of the CFDST members under impact loads.

Thirty-one tests under low velocity drop weight impact were carried out to examine the residual failure modes and the time history of the impact forces, global deformations and strains of concrete filled double steel tubular (CFDST) members in this paper. The parameters varied in the testing program include the column type (straight and tapered), the boundary conditions (simply supported and fixed), the axial load level and the impact energy. The results showed that all CFDST members behaved in a ductile manner and the residual deformation consisted of local deformation at the impact section, as well as the overall bending deformation. Compared to hollow double steel tubes, the CFDST members under the same applied impact energy demonstrate superior impact behavior in terms of higher energy absorbed, smaller global deformation and local deformation due to the interaction of the sandwich concrete and double skin steel tubes. The influence of key parameters on the dynamic resistance ability of CFDST is discussed.