Lateral-torsional buckling of slender cross-section stainless steel beams

Abstract

The contribution shows experimental and numerical research of welded stainless steel slender I-section beams. Difference in behaviour of stainless steel and common carbon steel members is generally known, but design procedures of stainless steel members has been established mainly for hollow sections (CHS, SHS/RHS) as these are the typical stainless steel profiles. Currently, open sections are also being used in structures and the design rules for both local buckling of very slender sections as well as lateral torsional buckling curves are based on very limited experimental and numerical research. For this reason, new research covering these phenomena has been started at the Czech Technical University in Prague. A numerical model using geometrically and materially nonlinear analysis with imperfection in software Abaqus was used for design of test arrangement. The experimental program consisted of six stainless steel beam four-point bending tests being used for a model validation. The tested beams were fabricated from two stainless steel materials, namely austenitic and ferritic steel, one cross-section geometry (Class 4 web and flanges) and three beam lengths. A parametric study based on the validated numerical model was carried out for slender section beams and the results were compared with existing design procedures and discussed.