Buckling response of ferritic stainless steel columns at elevated temperatures

Abstract

This paper presents a numerical study on the buckling behaviour of ferritic stainless steel columns in fire. Finite element models were developed and validated against existing test results to predict the elevated temperature non-linear response of ferritic stainless steel columns. A total of nine austenitic and three ferritic stainless steel column tests were replicated using the finite element analysis package ABAQUS. Parametric studies were performed to investigate the effects of variation of load level and global slenderness on the elevated temperature buckling response of ferritic stainless steel columns, and to extend the range of structural performance data. Both the experimental and numerical parametric study resultswere compared with the current design rules in EN 1993-1-2 (2005) and recent proposed modifications thereof by Ng and Gardner (2007), Uppfeldt et al. (2008) and Lopes et al. (2010).