Dedicated to Prof. Dr. Akimitsu Kurita on his 70th birthday
The use of composite columns with special types of sections e.g. concrete filled tubes with massive inner cores became very popular in the last years. These sections are not in the scope of the simplified design method of Eurocode 4. The paper deals with a design proposal for columns with those sections based on the general design method and it shows how this method can also be used extending the scope of the simplified design method in Eurocode 4.