Concrete-filled L-shaped steel tube columns can be used to save architectural space at room corners, and may have many advantages of structural behavior of common concrete-filled steel tubes as columns. In this paper, the seismic behavior of concrete-filled L-shaped steel tube columns (CFLSTs) was investigated. Six specimens subjected to a constant axial load and cyclically varying lateral loading were tested to study the effects of width to depth ratio of section, depth to thickness ratio of steel tube and axial load level on the strength, as well as stiffness, ductility and energy dissipation of CFLST columns. Experimental results showed that the displacement ductility of CFLST columns decreased significantly with the increase of axial load level, and the strength and stiffness degradations of CFLST columns were more significant with higher axial load level. With the increase of depth-thickness ratio of steel tube and depth-width ratio of section, the ductility and the lateral ultimate load-carrying capacity of CFLST columns also decreased gradually. All CFLST columns exhibited favorable energy dissipation and ductility, even for the columns subjected to high axial load, which indicates that this type of composite columns is adoptable in practical engineering, especially in seismic regions.

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In order to improve the co-working performance between the core concrete and steel tube for large-section rectangular concrete-filled steel tubular (LSCFT) columns when a vertical load is directly applied to the steel tube, a distributive beam is proposed as a load transferring measure. Four scaled LSCFT column specimens with different details were tested under axial compression to investigate the mechanical behavior and load transferring mechanism of the LSCFT columns with a distributive beam. The experimental results indicated that the bearing capacity of the LSCFT columns without a distributive beam was close to the yield capacity of the steel tube and the load shared by the core concrete was negligible. In contrast, the specimen with a distributive beam and inner stiffeners could bear a much higher load. In addition, refined nonlinear finite element models were developed to further analyze the load-transferring mechanism of LSCFT columns with different details. The numerical results showed that the ultimate load of the specimen with a distributive beam and inner stiffeners was much closer to the theoretical value calculated from Chinese code CECS159:2004. Setting a distributive beam and inner stiffeners simultaneously in LSCFT columns could ensure the cooperation between the core concrete and steel tube.