This article introduces the Unified Theory of Concrete Filled Steel Tube (CFST) into counting strength of composite CFST columns subjected to axial compression. There were four types of composite CFST columns listed, and one equivalent confinement coefficient was proposed with consideration of different sections of confining materials, so the whole cross section can be taken as one new composite material to research axial compressive behaviors of the composite CFST column. One unified design formula was derived from the Unified Theory, which was suitable for solid or hollow, circular or non-circular various cross sections of the composite CFST columns. The ultimate compressive bearing capacity was calculated in comparison with corresponding test results. The results show that the equivalent confinement coefficient can be used to calculate the compressive strength of the composite CFST column, and it has a linear relation with the enhanced coefficient of composite strength. Thus, the equivalent confinement coefficient was one important parameter to analyze the mechanical behavior and it can clearly reflect the confinement between concrete and confining material. This method is one more convenient and simpler approach for design work of composite CFST structures.

This paper presented a comparative study of concrete‐filled steel tubular (CFST) stub columns with three different confinement types from carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP): outer circular CFRP, inner circular CFRP, and outer square CFRP. The compressive mechanism and physical properties of the composite column were analyzed firstly aiming at investigating the confinement effect of CFRP. Ultimate axial bearing capacity of these three CFRP‐confined CFST columns was calculated based on Unified Theory of CFST and elastoplastic limit equilibrium theory, respectively. Meanwhile, the corresponding tests are adopted to validate the feasibility of the two calculation models. Through data analysis, the study confirmed the ultimate strength calculation results of the limit equilibrium method were found to be more reliable and approximate to the test results than those of Unified Theory of CFST. Then axial bearing capacity of the pure CFST column was predicted to evaluate the bearing capacity enhancement ratio of the three types of composite columns. It was demonstrated that the averaged enhancement ratio is 16.4 percent, showing that CFRP‐confined CFST columns had a broad engineering applicability. Through a comparative analysis, this study also confirmed that outer circular CFRP had the best confinement effect and outer square CFRP did better than inner circular CFRP. The confinement effect of CFRP increased with the decrease of concrete strength, and it was proportional with relative proportions of CFRP and steel under the same concrete strength.

External diaphragm joints with high structural reliability are used widely in composite steel and concrete structures. In this study, the external diaphragm joint was improved to be a steel beam-to-concrete filled double steel tubular column connection. The digital speckle correlation method was used to measure and investigate the strain field in the panel zone and relative beam-to-column rotation in a low-cycle reciprocating loading test. The obtained hysteresis curves of moment-rotation (M-θ) and shear force-deformation (V-$\gamma$) showed that the external diaphragm joints had higher strength, higher ductility, and better energy dissipation capacity. Decreasing the axial compression ratio resulted in the deterioration of initial rotational stiffness. Wider external diaphragm produced better ductility and larger initial shear stiffness. The ribbed anchorage web was effective to increase the bending resistance by 10%. Beam-to-column bending stiffness ratio can not only influence the bending resistance and energy dissipation capacity significantly but also affect the shear deformation capacity in the joint core. The magnitude of the shear strain in the panel zone was large, especially for the specimens under column failure mode, and shear deformation in the panel zone should not be neglected for it accounted for 30%–40% of the beam-to-column rotation. Beam-to-column rotation and shear deformation obtained by the digital speckle correlation method offered better predictions to analyze the mechanical behavior of external diaphragm joints in the concrete filled double steel tubular structures.