Design recommendations for stainless steel I-sections under concentrated transverse loading

Abstract

Recent investigations have highlighted the need for improved provisions for determining the resistance of stainless steel I-sections under concentrated transverse loading. Such provisions, which reflect the particular characteristics of the material, have been developed and are described herein. A review of the existing European design formulae for members under concentrated transverse loading is firstly presented. Then a series of parametric studies, based on validated finite element models are described covering I-sections with a range of web slenderness values and different stainless steel grades. On the basis of the numerical results, together with existing experimental data, revised design equations are presented and assessed through reliability analysis performed in accordance with Annex D of EN 1990.The new provisions yield enhanced ultimate load predictions and are expected to be included in the next revision of EN 1993-1-4.

A comparative analysis of resistance models for austenitic stainless steel girders subjected to concentrated loads

“…Table 3 shows the results for these calibrations. It is worth pointing out that for the effective load length 𝑙 𝑦 -in Equation ( 8)-in the calibration conducted by Graciano et al [16] the best results were attained with 𝑚 2 ≠ 0, and dos Santos and Gardner [17] only considered 𝑚 2 =0.…”

“…Employing a standard evaluation procedure provided in EN 1990 [24], Graciano et al [16] and dos Santos and Gardner [17] calibrated, the imperfection factor 𝛼 𝐹0 and the plateau length 𝜆 ̅ 𝐹0 for a given level of safety 𝛾 𝑀1 . Table 3 shows the results for these calibrations.…”

“…Recently, Graciano et al [16] and dos Santos and Gardner [17] calibrated the resistance model for patch loading employed for carbon steel in the EC3 Part 1-5 [5] to predict the corresponding resistance of austenitic stainless steel plate girders. The results showed a significant improvement in the theoretical predictions obtained with the calibrated models.…”

“…Finite element analysis (FEA) has been proven to be a reliable tool to predict the behavior of stainless-steel girders subjected to patch loading [14], [15], [16], [17], [18]. To standardize and facilitate FEA, the European Committee for Standardization [19], [20] developed a designation system that abbreviates the features included in various structural analyses.…”

Simplified and advanced design for stainless steel members under concentrated transverse loading

“…web thickness tw and web yield stress fyw. By considering the variability of each independent variable, as well as accounting for variability generated by the use of numerical data and the amount of data used, it was found that the proposed design equations presented in Section 4.3, with coefficients presented in Table 3, can be safely applied to the design of stainless steel members under concentrated transverse loading with a partial factor γM1 equal to 1.1 [15]. Introduction elastic buckling load, from which the element slenderness and hence the element resistance can be determined.…”