Abstract:Dendriform connections of concrete filled steel rectangular tubes (CFSRT) are composed of a bifurcated column and doublecruciform beamcolumn connections. A 3D nonlinear finite element analysis (FEA) which considers all nonlinear effects of materials, geometry and contact interfaces is established. Analysis of the FEA results show that the loaddisplacement curves at the ends of the beam and hysteretic curves obtained experimentally and via FEA agreed with each other. The stiffener transfers the tensioncompression stress efficiently, the middle hole has little influence on the stress transfer, and the compressive zone of the core concrete under repeated loading has a greater contribution to the compression stress transfer.