Very high strength steel (VHS) is implemented in structures to increase their load carrying capacity. This paper deals with finite element analysis of fabricated very high strength steel square and triangular stub concrete filled tubular (CFT) columns. Innovative design by attaching steel tubes at vertices was considered for this investigation. VHS steel of nominal yield of 1350 MPa was employed as material for tubes and facet plates. Post-peak behavior and failure pattern were compared with the experimental results and a parametric study was conducted to check the load–deflection behavior of samples with variation in B/T ratio. Likewise, effect of change of material properties was observed. Increasing thickness of steel tubes by 2% led to the spike in elastic yield in both square and triangular sections of about 3%. Solid deformable elements used for modeling steel encasing instead of shell elements produced more approximate realistic failure patterns. Change in material properties from mild steel to high-strength steel exhibits increase in elastic yield. Comparison with experimental results in literature reveals fair congruence. © 2018, Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature.