On The Distortional Buckling, Post-Buckling And Strength of Cold-Formed Steel Lipped Channel Columns Under Fire Conditions

This paper reports the available results of an ongoing shell finite element investigation on the distortional buckling, post-buckling and ultimate strength behaviour of coldformed steel lipped channel columns (centrally compressed members) subjected to high temperatures typically caused by fire conditions. Two column collapse situations are dealt with, corresponding to different loading strategies: (i) application of an increasing compressive load to columns subjected to a constant (uniform) temperature distribution, in order to obtain failure loads, and (ii) application of a progressive temperature raise to axially compressed column, in order to obtain failure temperatures -the latter approach provides a more realistic simulation of fire conditions. The steel material behaviour at high temperatures is described by the constitutive model prescribed in Eurocode 3 for cold-formed steel. After validating the numerical model adopted, through the comparison with results of simulations reported in the literature and based on experimentally obtained stress-strain laws, the paper presents numerical results concerning lipped channel columns made of various steel grades under fire conditions - they consist of (i) non-linear equilibrium paths, yielded by steady state and transient column analyses, and (ii) the corresponding failure loads/stresses and temperatures.