Safety evaluation of concrete-filled steel tubular columns designed according to Brazilian building code NBR 8800:2008

Resumo

This paper presents an investigation of the safety of circular concrete-filled steel tubular columns designed according to Brazilian building code NBR 8800. The investigation is based on a comparison of normative provisions to column resistance obtained in 32 experimental tests, and on a comparison to the provisions of the equivalent American and European codes. The modeling error of the normative provisions is evaluated and incorporated in the analysis. An analysis of covariance is performed in order to identify tendencies in the theoretical resistance model. Reliability analysis is performed for 3888 column configurations, resulting in reliability indexes that cover the range of applicability of the building code. Based on the results, some improvement suggestions for the revision text of NBR 8800 are presented