Tests of high strength steel columns

Abstract

The paper describes a test programme on columns fabricated from high strength steel plates with nominal yield stress of 690 MPa. The programme comprised 13 box and I-section specimens, including fixed-ended stub columns and pin-ended long columns. For the pin-ended columns, two tests were performed for each length using eccentric and concentric axial loading. The purpose of the test programme was to select a curve for high strength steel columns with a nominal yield stress of 690 MPa from the multiple column curves used in the Australian steel structures standard. It is shown that the α b = −0·5 curve is the appropriate curve for box and I-section columns fabricated from flame-cut high strength steel plate with a nominal yield stress of 690 MPa. This curve is higher than the α b = 0 curve for box and I-section columns fabricated from ordinary steel because the effect of residual stresses is less detrimental to the strength of high strength steel columns than to the strength of ordinary steel columns. The paper also shows a comparison of the tests with column design strengths of the Australian steel structures standard AS4100, the Load and Resistance Factor Design Specification of the American Institute of Steel Construction, The British Standard BS5950: Part 1, and the draft European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) Eurocode3. The design strengths are shown to be in close agreement with the tests except for Eurocode3 which conservatively predicts the test strengths.