M.Ing. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.Ing. (Civil Engineering) / The results of a study presented on the behaviour of cold-formed stainless steel beams subjected to shear taking into account elastic shear buckling, inelastic shear buckling and shear yielding, as well as an investigation into the interaction relationship between shear and bending are presented. From this investigation the results obtained show good relation to the theory. The local shear buckling stress was experimentally determined and it was found that for unreinforced beam webs the shear buckling coefficient is that of an infinitely long plate, namely k=5,34. A good agreement between the experimental ultimate shear strength and the predicted ultimate shear strength was found. Stainless steel beams comprising of lipped channels were manufactured and tested to failure. The types of stainless steels used in this investigation were Types 304, 316, 430 and Type 3CR12 corrosion resiting steel, a modified Type 409 stainless steel. The stress-strain relationship for stainless steels differs from that of carbon steel in that stainless steel is a gradual yielding material. It was concluded in this investigation that Gerard's plasticity reduction factor, Gs/G o, should be used as a plasticity reduction factor in calculations concerning shear. It was found that present design criteria are adequate.

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Cold-formed stainless steel sections have been increasingly used in architectural and structural applications. Yet the high price of stainless steel limits the application to construction projects. The lean duplex stainless steel (EN 1.4162) offers an opportunity for stainless steels to be used more widely due to its competitive in price, good mechanical properties and corrosion resistance. The lean duplex stainless steel is a relatively new material, and research on this material is limited. Currently, the lean duplex stainless steel is not covered in any design specification, and no design rules are available for such material. Therefore, the behaviour and design of cold-formed lean duplex stainless steel members are investigated in this study. The investigation focused on columns, beams and beam-columns of square and rectangular hollow sections. Both experimental and numerical investigations were performed and reported. Design rules for cold-form lean duplex stainless steel members are proposed. The experimental investigation included material tests, column tests, beam tests and beam-column tests at room and elevated temperatures ranged from 24 – 900 °C. The test specimens were cold-rolled from flat strips. The test program consists of two square hollow sections and four rectangular hollow sections. Coupon specimens were extracted from each hollow section, and their material properties were obtained from tensile coupon tests at room temperature and elevated temperatures. In this study, a modified design rule was proposed to predict the cold-formed lean duplex stainless steel material properties at elevated temperatures. The local and overall geometric imperfections were measured. A total of 38 column tests were conducted. The effective column length ranged from 75 to 1660 mm in order to obtain a column curve for each test series. The test program for beams included 10 pure bending tests, and the bending capacities of the specimens were determined. A total of 37 beam-column specimens were compressed between pinned ends at different eccentricities in order to obtain an interactive curve for each series of test. Numerical investigation on columns, beams and beam-columns at room temperature as well as elevated temperatures are also presented. Accurate finite element models were developed and verified against the experimental results for columns, beams and beam-columns at room temperature. The structural members at elevated temperatures were simulated by replacing the material properties with those obtained at elevated temperatures. Extensive parametric studies were carried out, including 150 columns, 126 beams and 150 beam-columns at room temperature, as well as 180 columns, 125 beams and 195 beam-columns at elevated temperatures. Column, beam and beam-column strengths obtained from the experimental and numerical investigations as well as available data were compared with the design strengths calculated using American, Australian/New Zealand, European specifications for stainless steel structures of duplex material, since lean duplex material is not covered by these specifications. In addition, direct strength method for carbon steel and stainless steel as well as continuous strength method for stainless steel were assessed for cold-formed lean duplex stainless steel. Modified design rules were proposed. The reliability of the current and modified design rules was evaluated using reliability analysis. / published_or_final_version / Civil Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

In this study, the structural behaviour of cold-formed steel built-up compression members with longitudinal stiffeners was investigated by experiments and numerical simulation. The influence of different screw spacings on the ultimate strengths of built-up compression members was also investigated. In current design specifications, generally there are no direct and explicit design rules for cold-formed steel built-up sections. Therefore, design rules for built-up open sections and closed sections have been proposed. The test program was conducted for cold-formed steel built-up sections, which were compressed axially between fixed ends with various column lengths ranged from 300 to 3200 mm. Two identical open sections were connected by self-tapping screws to form a built-up section. The material properties and initial geometric imperfections of the test specimens were measured. The experimental investigation consisted of built-up open sections with edge and web stiffeners, and built-up closed sections with inward or outward web stiffeners. In total, 47 specimens were tested with a screw spacing of 100 mm, and another 25 specimens were tested with screw spacings of 300 and 600 mm. A further investigation on the structural behaviour of cold-formed steel built-up compression members was performed using finite element analysis (FEA). Firstly, accurate and reliable finite element models (FEMs) were developed and verified against the test results. Secondly, extensive parametric studies of cross-section geometry and the screw spacing were carried out by the verified FEMs. The parametric study contained 442 specimens for built-up open sections, built-up closed sections, and built-up sections with different screw spacings. Therefore, the complex structural behaviour of built-up compression members with edge and web stiffeners, together with different spacings of self-tapping screws were studied thoroughly, as reported in this thesis. The current direct strength method (DSM) is a favored design method for cold-formed steel columns and beams due to its ease of calculation. However, DSM does not cover the design of cold-formed steel built-up sections. The appropriateness of DSM for cold-formed steel built-up compression members was accessed by both experimental and numerical investigation. It was found that the current DSM is not quite suitable for the design of built-up compression members. Therefore, the current DSM was modified for built-up open and closed sections. The results show that the modified design rules are generally conservative and reliable for the design of built-up compression members. In addition, design recommendations are proposed for built-up sections with different screw spacings. The reliability of the current and modified design rules was evaluated using reliability analysis. / published_or_final_version / Civil Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Mechanical Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

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M.Ing. / Die doel van hierdie verhandeling is om die basiese agtergrond in terme van die knikgedrag van vlekvrye staal to ondersoek wat sodoende 'n bydrae sal kan lewer tot die ontwikkeling van 'n meer volledige ontwerpspesifikasie vir die veilige en koste effektiewe strukturele aanwending van vlekvrye staal

M.Ing. (Civil Engineering) / Please refer to full text to view abstract