Buckling and critical temperatures of restrained H-section steel columns in fire considering dynamic effect

Abstract

In this paper, a parametric analysis on the buckling and critical temperatures of restrained H-section steel columns in fire, considering the dynamic effect, is presented. The developed finite element model of steel columns was verified by test results. Then, the buckling and critical temperatures of steel columns, obtained by static and explicit dynamic analyses, were compared. Moreover, the effects of rotational and axial restraint stiffness ratios, as well as load ratios, were studied. It was found that as the rotational restraint stiffness ratio increased, the buckling and critical temperatures both rose, and the rotational restraint stiffness ratio affected the critical temperature more than the buckling temperature. Besides, when the axial restraint stiffness ratio and load ratio rose, the buckling and critical temperatures dropped significantly. Finally, by combining the findings of the research and existing calculation formulas in literatures, new simplified formulas for buckling and critical temperatures were proposed, respectively. The prediction results of the proposed calculation formulas agreed well with the parametric analysis results. The proposed formulas were further verified by test data. According to the comparative results, the proposed formulas could well predict the buckling and critical temperatures of steel columns in fire.