Partially encased composite column (PEC) consists of thin walled welded H- shaped steel section with transverse links provided at regular intervals between the flanges to inhibit the occurrence of local buckling in the thin flange plates. The space between the flanges and the web plate are filled up with concrete. Extensive experimental investigations have been conducted by several research groups to understand the behavior of this relatively new composite column under both concentric and

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... ric loading conditions along with sophisticated non-linear finite element analysis. But the separation between concrete and steel initiates the unstable condition in the finite element analysis near the ultimate point when flange plate buckles. To avoid the expensive and cumbersome modeling of the behavior at the interface of two dissimilar materials, an attempt has been made in this study to replace the composite section of PEC column with an equivalent steel section which can easily be incorporated in commercially available finite element softwares.