Post-fire local buckling behaviour of cold-formed S700 high strength steel circular hollow sections under axial compression: Experiments, modelling and design

This paper presents experimental and numerical studies of the local buckling behaviour and compression resistances of cold-formed S700 high strength steel circular hollow sections (CHS) after exposure to elevated temperatures. The testing programme included post-fire material tests, initial local geometric imperfection measurements and stub column tests on ten specimens. Then, finite element models were developed to simulate the test structural responses and employed to perform parametric studies to generate further numerical data over a wide range of cross-section dimensions. Given that there are no existing design standards for high strength steel structures after exposure to elevated temperatures, the relevant ambient temperature design rules were evaluated, using post-fire material properties, for their applicability to cold-formed S700 high strength steel CHS after exposure to elevated temperatures, based on the test and numerical data. The evaluation results revealed that (i) the codified slenderness limits were generally accurate when used for cross-section classification of post-fire cold-formed S700 high strength steel CHS and (ii) although the codified design rules resulted in overall relatively accurate cross-section compression resistance predictions, the predicted resistances were conservative for cold-formed S700 high strength steel non-slender CHS after exposure to elevated temperatures of 900 degrees C and 1100 degrees C (owing to the high levels of material strain hardening) and those slender CHS (owing to the conservatism of the codified effective width methods).