BEARING CAPACITY AND ENERGY ABSORPTION CHARACTERISTICS OF THIN-WALLED CIRCULAR STEEL TUBE AND ITS APPLICATION IN RETRACTABLE ROOF STRUCTURES

摘要

This paper presents an experimental task in which the specimens are either single thin-walled circular stainless steel tubes or a honeycomb structure. The honeycomb structure is made up of the tubes with 4 configurations. Compressive loads are applied and deformations are recorded. The numerical and analytical analyses are also carried out with respect to the bearing capacity and energy absorption characteristics. It is shown that the average bearing capacity of single thin-walled circular steel tubes is lower than those tubes arranged in a honeycomb structure. The configuration of staggered thin-walled circular steel tubes with R/t values between 20 and 30 exhibits good bearing capacity. The configuration of aligned thin-walled circular steel tubes of R/t values between 30 and 45 exhibits good energy absorbing characteristic. The results obtained in this paper may be useful in designing a steel retractable roof structure with respect to passive collision protection.