Enhancing bending buckling strength of hollow tubes using concrete filling

Hollow tubular components are widely used in industries as structural elements which are subjected to bending loads. These tubes are susceptible to bending (transverse) buckling, more so in tubes with thinner cross sections. The presented work investigates the effect of adding an inexpensive core like concrete (with good compressive strength) on the bending buckling strength of thin hollow tubes. This study is based on the results obtained from three-point bend tests performed on hollow and concrete filled thin stainless-steel tubes of small diameter. The size of test specimens was chosen such that the bending buckling mode dominates over the yielding as a failure mode. The experimental results are validated by finite element-based simulations. It was observed that addition of a concrete core significantly improves the bending buckling strength of the thin hollow tubes.