Stainless steel structures – research, codification and practice

Abstract

This paper provides a summary of recent developments in research, codification and design practice surrounding the structural use of stainless steel, with an emphasis on structural stability. Stainless steel has a nonlinear material response and this directly influences the structural behaviour. Guidance on material nonlinearities in international design standards largely relates to the occurrence of traditional idealised plastic hinges, as seen in carbon steel structures. However, such hinges do not form in stainless steel structures. Design codes provide the design framework that structural engineers use to demonstrate structural safety. With stainless steel being a high value material, its efficient use is paramount, and this is a particular incentive to embrace the opportunities offered by advanced system-level analysis and design. The most accurate representation of the behaviour of a structure is achieved by directly allowing for instability, plasticity, residual stresses and initial geometric imperfections in a second order inelastic analysis. This paper presents an overview of recent developments in the stability design of stainless steel structures, due to be included in upcoming revisions of prEN 1993-1-4, AISC 370 and ASCE-8; inclusion of these new provisions for advanced analysis in these codes represents a huge opportunity for enabling more widespread application of stainless steel in structural applications. Recent applications of stainless steel in practice are also presented herein and, with a view to the future, opportunities for the application of advanced design and construction methods to stainless steel structures are explored.