Stainless Steel Cross-Sections Under Combined Loading
Stainless Steel Cross-Sections Under Combined Loading
Stainless Steel Cross-Sections Under Combined Loading
INTRODUCTION
Stainless steel has been gaining increasing use in a variety of engineering applications due to its
unique combination of mechanical properties, durability and aesthetics. Significant progress in the
development of structural design guidance has been made in recent years, underpinned by sound
research. However, an area that has remained relatively unexplored is that of combined loading.
Testing and analysis of stainless steel cross-sections under combined axial load and bending is
therefore the subject of the present paper. A comprehensive experimental study was carried out to
investigate the cross-sectional behaviour of tubular sections under combined bending and
compression. The experimental results are analysed and then compared to the current EN 1993-1-4
[1] capacity predictions for stainless steel, which neglect the strain hardening effect and thus yield
conservative results. The Continuous Strength Method (CSM) is a deformation-based design
approach accounting for strain hardening and has been shown to provide accurate predictions of
cross-sectional resistance under compression and bending, acting in isolation. Initial proposals to
extend the CSM to the combined loading cases are made in this paper, of which the applicability
and accuracy are assessed. Finally, a modified EC3/CSM method, using the EC3 interaction
expressions but with CSM end points, is proposed and also shown to provide accurate failure load
predictions.
1 EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS
1.1 Introduction
An experimental study covering austenitic and lean duplex stainless steels and a range of cross-
section sizes was conducted in the University of Liege and Imperial College London, with the aim
of investigating the cross-sectional behaviour of tubular structural sections under combined loading
conditions. In total, the laboratory testing programme comprised geometric imperfection
measurements, material testing, 5 stub column tests, 20 uniaxial bending plus compression tests and
4 biaxial bending plus compression tests. 5 section sizes were employed, which were SHS
120×120×5, SHS 100×100×5, RHS 150×100×6, and RHS 150×100×8 of austenitic grade (EN
1.4571, 1.4301, 1.4307 and 1.4404, respectively) and SHS 150×150×8 of lean duplex grade (EN
1.4162). All the cross-sections are at least Class 3 sections according to the slenderness limits in EN
1993-1-4. The testing apparatus, experimental procedures and test results are detailed in the
following sections.
1.2 Material testing
A comprehensive description of the material testing was given by Afshan et al. [2] whilst only a
brief summary is presented herein. For each section size, two flat coupons and two corner coupons
were tested. The weighted average (based on face width) measured properties from flat coupon tests
and corner coupon tests for each section size are reported in Table 1, where E is Young’s modulus,
σ0.2 is the 0.2% proof stress, σu is the ultimate tensile stress, and n and n’0.2,1.0 are the strain
hardening exponents used in the compound Ramberg-Osgood material model [3], in which n is
determined based on the 0.01% and 0.2% proof stresses.
Table 1. Weighted average coupon material properties
Flat coupon tests Corner coupon tests
Section E σ0.2 σu E σ0.2 σu
2 2 n n’0.2,1.0 2 2 n n’0.2,1.0
(N/mm ) (N/mm ) (N/mm ) (N/mm )
SHS 120×120×5 192550 343 605 6.7 2.4 192900 526 687 10.8 3.0
SHS 100×100×5 193400 434 683 4.7 2.9 192200 599 810 3.6 19.6
RHS 150×100×6 193250 341 642 6.6 2.2 189750 607 808 8.7 3.0
RHS 150×100×8 196109 335 608 5.9 2.6 200700 559 725 4.8 3.9
SHS 150×150×8 198700 519 728 5.3 2.8 206750 831 920 8.9 6.1
3500
3000
SHS 150×150×8
2500
2000 RHS 150×100×8
Fu(kN)
1500
RHS 150×100×6
1000
SHS 100×100×5
500
SHS 120×120×5
0
0 4 8 12 16 20
End shortening (mm)
Fig. 3. Typical stub column
Fig. 2. Stub column load-end shortening curves failure mode
Fig. 5. Test curves for SHS Fig. 6. Test curves for SHS Fig. 7. Test curves for SHS
120×120×5 (specimens: 1A to 1C) 100×100×5 (specimens: 2A to 2C) 150×100×6 (specimens: 3A to 3D)
Fu (kN) Fu (kN) Fu (kN)
1400 2500 800
1200 e0=20mm 2000 e0=30mm
e0=52mm 600
1000 e0=52mm e0=84mm
800 1500
400 e0y=e0z=20mm
600 1000 e0=116mm
400 e0=75mm 200
200 500
0 0 0
0 2 4 6 8 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4
End rotation (deg) End rotation (deg) End rotation (deg)
Fig. 8. Test curves for RHS Fig. 9. Test curves for SHS Fig. 10. Test curves for SHS
150×100×8 (specimens: 4A to 4C) 150×150×8 (specimens: 5A to 5D) 100×100×5 (specimen: 2E)
Fu (kN) Fu (kN) Fu (kN)
600 500 400
500 400
300
400 300 e0z=60mm e0y=23mm e0z=78mm
300 200
e0y=23mm e0z=43mm 200
200 e0y=20mm
100 100
100
0 0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5
End rotation (deg) End rotation (deg) End rotation (deg)
Fig. 11. Test curves for SHS Fig. 12. Test curves for SHS Fig. 13. Test curves for SHS
100×100×5 (specimen: 2F) 100×100×5 (specimen: 2G) 100×100×5 (specimen: 2H)
1.2 1.2
Tests Tests
1.0 1.0
0.8 CSM 0.8 CSM
Mu/Mpl
Mu/Mpl
0.6 0.6
EC3 EC3
0.4 0.4
0.2 Modified 0.2 Modified
0.0 EC3/CSM EC3/CSM
0.0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2
Nu/Npl Nu/Npl
Fig. 15. Comparison of test results on SHS 120×120×5 Fig. 16. Comparison of test results on SHS 100×100×5
specimens to design curves specimens to design curves
1.4 1.2
Tests Tests
1.2 1.0
1.0 CSM CSM
0.8
Mu/Mpl
Mu/Mpl
0.8
0.6
0.6 EC3 EC3
0.4 0.4
0.2 Modified 0.2 Modified
EC3/CSM 0.0 EC3/CSM
0.0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2
Nu/Npl Nu/Npl
Fig. 17. Comparison of test results on RHS 150×100×6 Fig. 18. Comparison of test results on RHS 150×100×8
specimens to design curves specimens to design curves
1.2
Tests
1.0
0.8 CSM
Mu/Mpl
0.6
EC3
0.4
0.2 Modified
EC3/CSM
0.0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2
Nu/Npl
Fig. 19. Comparison of test results on SHS 150×150×8 specimens to design curves
3 CONCLUSIONS
A comprehensive experimental study of the cross-sectional behaviour of stainless steel under
combined loading has been presented. Comparisons of the test results with the current EN 1993-1-4
provisions indicated undue conservatism, attributed mainly to the lack of consideration for strain
hardening. The Continuous Strength Method for combined loading performed well for stainless
steel, yielding more accurate predictions than EN 1993-1-4. Finally, a modified EC3/CSM method
was proposed by utilizing the CSM resistances as the end points of the interaction curves but
retaining the interaction formulae and coefficients in EN 1993-1-4, which also led to a high level of
accuracy in the prediction of the cross-sectional resistance. As a consequence, more efficient design
could be obtained by adopting the latter two CSM-related methods.
REFERENCES
[1] EN 1993-1-4, “Eurocode 3: Design of steel structures – Part 1.4: General rules – Supplementary rules
for stainless steel”, European Committee for Standardization, Brussels, Belgium, 2006.
[2] Afshan, S, Rossi, B, Gardner, L, “Strength enhancement in cold-formed structural sections – Part I:
material testing”, Journal of Constructional Steel Research, Vol. 83, No. 17, pp. 177-188, 2013.
[3] Gardner, L, Nethercot, D, A, “Numerical modeling of stainless steel structural components- a consistent
approach”, Journal of Structural Engineering, ASCE, Vol. 130, No. 10, pp. 1586-1601, 2004.
[4] Centre for Advanced Structural Engineering, “Compression tests of stainless steel tubular columns”,
Investigation Rep. S770, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia, 1990.
[5] Fujimoto, T, Mukai, A, Nishiyama, I, Sakino, K, “Behaviour of eccentrically loaded concrete-filled
steel tubular columns”, Journal of Structural Engineering, ASCE, Vol.130, No. 2, pp. 203-212, 2004.
[6] EN 1993-1-1, “Eurocode 3: Design of steel structures – Part 1.1: General rules – General rules and rules
for buildings”, European Committee for Standardization, Brussels, Belgium, 2005.
[7] Liew, A, Gardner, L, “Ultimate capacity of structural steel cross-sections under combined loading”,
Journal of Constructional Steel Research, Submitted.
EUROSTEEL 2014, September 10-12, 2014, Naples, Italy
ABSTRACT
Stainless steel has been gaining increasing use in a variety of engineering applications due to its
unique combination of mechanical properties, durability and aesthetics. Significant progress in the
development of structural design guidance has been made in recent years, underpinned by sound
research. However, an area that has remained relatively unexplored is that of combined loading.
Testing and analysis of stainless steel cross-sections under combined axial load and bending is
therefore the subject of the present paper. The experimental programme covers a wide range of
material grades – austenitic (EN 1.4571, 1.4301, 1.4307 and 1.4404) and lean duplex (EN 1.4162),
and cross-section sizes – three Square Hollow Sections (SHS) and two Rectangular Hollow
Sections (RHS). In total, 5 pure compression tests, 20 uniaxial bending plus compression tests and 4
biaxial bending plus compression tests have been carried out to investigate the cross-sectional
behaviour of tubular sections under combined bending and compression. The key test results,
including the initial load eccentricity e0, the failure load Fu, the generated lateral deflection at
failure load e’, the failure moment Mu=Fu(e0+e’) [1] and the corresponding end rotation at failure
Φu, are reported. Failure of all the specimens was due to local buckling in combination with
yielding for the stockier sections. Typical local buckling failure modes are displayed in Fig. 1. The
experimental results are analysed and then compared to three design methods – EN 1993-1-4 (EC3),
CSM and a Modified EC3/CSM method. Quantitative comparisons between these three methods are
made in Table 1 in terms of the ratio of predicted resistance to test resistance Ru,method/Ru,test.
1.4 1.2
Tests Tests
1.2 1.0
1.0 CSM 0.8 CSM
Mu/Mpl
Mu/Mpl
0.8
0.6
0.6 EC3 EC3
0.4
0.4
0.2 Modified 0.2 Modified
EC3/CSM 0.0 EC3/CSM
0.0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2
Nu/Npl Nu/Npl
Fig. 2. Comparison of test results on RHS 150×100×6 Fig. 3. Comparison of test results on RHS 150×100×8
specimens to design curves specimens to design curves
CONCLUSIONS
A comprehensive experimental study of the cross-sectional behaviour of stainless steel under
combined loading has been presented. Comparisons of the test results with the current EN 1993-1-4
provisions indicated undue conservatism, attributed mainly to the lack of consideration for strain
hardening. The Continuous Strength Method for combined loading performed well for stainless
steel, yielding more accurate predictions than EN 1993-1-4. Finally, a modified EC3/CSM method
was proposed by utilizing the CSM resistances as the end points of the interaction curve but
retaining the bi-linear interaction shape in EN 1993-1-4, which also led to a high level of accuracy
in the prediction of cross-sectional resistance. As a consequence, more efficient design could be
obtained by adopting the latter two CSM-related methods.
REFERENCES
[1] Fujimoto, T, Mukai, A, Nishiyama, I, Sakino, K, “Behaviour of eccentrically loaded concrete-filled
steel tubular columns”, Journal of Structural Engineering, ASCE, Vol.130, No. 2, pp. 203-212, 2004.
[2] EN 1993-1-4, “Eurocode 3: Design of steel structures – Part 1.4: General rules – Supplementary rules
for stainless steel”, European Committee for Standardization, Brussels, Belgium, 2006.
[3] EN 1993-1-1, “Eurocode 3: Design of steel structures – Part 1.1: General rules – General rules and rules
for buildings”, European Committee for Standardization, Brussels, Belgium, 2005.
[4] Liew, A, Gardner, L, “Ultimate capacity of structural steel cross-sections under combined loading”,
Journal of Constructional Steel Research, Submitted.