An experimental study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of transverse steel in reinforced concrete tied columns subjected to monotonically increasing axial compression. Eighteen large-scale columns($260{ imes}260{ imes}1,200mm$) were tested. Effects of such main variables as concrete compressive strength, configurations of transverse steel, transverse reinforcement ratio, spacing of transverse steel, and spalling of concrete cover were investigated. High-strength concrete columns under concentric axial loads show extremely brittle behavior unless the columns are confined with transverse steel that can provide sufficiently high lateral confinement pressure. A consistent decrease in the deformability of the column test specimens was observed with increasing concrete strength. Test results of this study were compared with existing confinement models of modified Kent-Park, Sheikh-Uzumeri, Mander, and Saatcioglu-Razvi. The comparison indicates many existing models to predict the behavior of confined concrete overestimate or underestimate the ductility of confined concrete.