Post-earthquake fire resistance of stainless steel K-joints considering gradient temperature effect

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to investigate the fire resistance of the stainless steel K-joints considering gradient temperature effect under post-earthquake fire given that there is no relevant research on this kind of the stainless steel K-joints. The possibility of a fire resulting from an earthquake is high, the residual stress and residual deformation caused by an earthquake will remarkably reduce the fire resistance of the stainless steel K-joints. It is of practical interest to explore the post-earthquake fire resistance of the stainless steel K-joints. Accuracy and reliability of computation models to the stainless steel K-joints were validated using existing test results, temperature field distribution was obtained via transient response analysis, 24 computation models were established using finite element software ANASYS, then a parameter study was conducted by considering following parameters such as the diameter ratio of brace to chord (β), diameter to wall thickness ratio of chord (α), wall thickness ratio of brace to chord (η), thickness of the fire coating protection (tfr), angle between the brace and the chord (θ) and damage variable (D~). The results demonstrated that the parameters β, α, tfr, and θ had significant impacts on the post-earthquake fire resistance associated with the stainless steel K-joints, the damage variable D~had a dramatic effect on the post-earthquake fire resistance of the stainless steel K-Joints. The findings related to this study can provide the reference value for the design, maintenance and reinforcement against the stainless steel K-joints.