Fire testing of austenitic stainless steel I-section beam–columns

Abstract

With the increasing use of stainless steel elements in construction, the need for comprehensive rules to enable their efficient structural design is clear. To date, the fire behaviour of stainless steel I-section beam–columns has been the subject of relatively little research. In particular, there is an absence of experimental data. To address this gap in knowledge, full-scale anisothermal fire tests on six grade 1.4301 austenitic stainless steel I-section beam–columns have been carried out; the test procedure and results are reported herein. The test specimens were subjected to eccentric axial compression with two eccentricity values so as to achieve different combinations of axial compression and uniform minor axis bending. Complementary initial local and global geometric imperfection measurements, room temperature tensile coupon tests and room temperature beam–column tests were also carried out. Based on the obtained experimental results, together with additional numerical results from a previous study, the existing design rules in the European structural steel fire design standard EN 1993-1-2 and the new design method of Kucukler et al. (2021) for stainless steel beam–columns in fire, which will be incorporated into the next version of EN 1993-1-2, are assessed.