This thesis presents the results of a research project to develop methods to carry out fire safety design of welded steel tubular trusses at elevated temperatures due to fire exposure. It deals with three subjects: resistance of welded tubular joints at elevated temperatures, effects of large truss deflection in fire on member design and effects of localised heating. The objectives of the project are achieved through numerical finite element modelling at elevated temperatures using the commercial Finite Element software ABAQUS v6.10-1 (2011). Validation of the simulation model for joints is based on comparison against the test results of Nguyen et al. (2010) and Kurobane et al. (1986). Validation of the simulation model for trusses is through checking against the test results of Edwards (2004) and Liu et al. (2010).For welded tubular joints, extensive numerical simulations have been conducted on T-, Y-, X-, N- and non-overlapped K-joints subjected to brace axial compression or tension, considering a wide range of geometrical parameters. Uniform temperature distribution was assumed for both the chord and brace members. Results of the numerical simulations indicate for gap K- and N-joints (two brace members, one in tension and the other in compression) and for T-, Y- and X-joints with the brace member under axial tensile load (one brace member only, in tension), it is suitable to use the same ambient temperature calculation equation as in the CIDECT (2010) or EN 1993-1-8 (CEN, 2005a) design guides and simply replace the ambient temperature strength of steel with the elevated temperature value. However, for T-, Y- and X-joints under brace compression load (one brace member only, in compression), the effect of large chord deformation should be considered. Large chord deformation changes the chord geometry and invalidates the assumed yield line mechanism at ambient temperature. For approximation, the results of this research indicate that it is acceptable to modify the ambient temperature joint strength by a reduction factor for the elastic modulus of steel at elevated temperatures. In the current fire safety design method for steel truss, a member based approach is used. In this approach, the truss member forces are calculated at ambient temperature based on linear elastic analysis. These forces are then used to calculate the truss member limiting temperatures. An extensive parametric study has been carried out to investigate whether this method is appropriate. The parametric study encompasses different design parameters over a wide range of values, including truss type, joint type, truss span-to-depth ratio, critical member slenderness, applied load ratio, number of brace members, initial imperfection and thermal elongation. The results of this research show that due to a truss undergoing large displacements at elevated temperatures, some truss members (compression brace members near the truss centre) experience large increases in member forces. Therefore, using the ambient temperature member force, as in the current truss fire safety design method, may overestimate the truss member critical temperature by 100 °C. A method has been proposed to analytically calculate the increase in brace compressive force due to large truss deformation. In this method, the maximum truss displacement is assumed to be span/30. A comparison of the results calculated using the proposed method against the truss parametric study results has shown good agreement with the two sets of results, with the calculation results generally being slightly on the safe side. When different members of a truss are heated to different temperatures due to localised fire exposure, the brace members in compression experience increased compression due to restrained thermal expansion. To calculate the critical temperature of a brace member in a localised heated truss, it is necessary to consider this effect of restrained thermal expansion. It is also necessary to consider the beneficial effects of the adjacent members being heated, which tends to reduce the increase in compressive force in the critical member under consideration. Again, an extensive set of parametric studies have been conducted, for different load ratio, slenderness and axial restraint ratio. The results of this parametric study suggest that to calculate the critical temperature of a brace member, it is not necessary to consider the effects of the third or further adjacent members being heated. For the remainder of the heated members, this thesis has proposed a linear elastic, static analysis method at ambient temperature to calculate the additional compressive force (some negative, indicating tension) in the critical member caused by the heated members (including the critical member itself and the adjacent members). The additional compressive force is then used to calculate the limiting temperature of the critical member. For this purpose, the approximate analytical equation of Wang et al. (2010) has been demonstrated to be suitable.

Στην παρούσα εργασία πραγματοποιήθηκε παραμετρική μελέτη μεταλλικών καμπτικών επίπεδων πλαισίων με υποστυλώματα τύπου τετραγωνικής κοιλοδοκού (Square Hollow Section, SHS) και δοκών τύπου διπλού ταυ (IPE). Ζητούμενο αποτελούσε η ανάπτυξη εξισώσεων που θα συνδέουν χαρακτηριστικά της ανελαστικής απόκρισης των κατασκευών με την δυνατότητα αντισεισμικού σχεδιασμού σύμφωνα με την μέθοδο των δυνάμεων έχοντας όμως σαν αρχικό στόχο ένα επιθυμητό επίπεδο επιτελεστικότητας σύμφωνα με τον αντισεισμικό σχεδιασμό που βασίζεται στην νεότερη μέθοδο των μετακινήσεων και εκτιμούν πιο σωστά την επιρροή των φαινομένων Ρ-Δ στην ανελαστική απόκριση των δισδιάτατων καμπτικών πλαισίων. Αναδεικνύεται η επιρροή του ελέγχου ευστάθειας στον σχεδιασμό μεταλλικών καμπτικών πλαισίων. Χρησιμοποιούνται διάφορες παράμετροι που εκτιμήθηκε πως επηρεάζουν την ελαστική και ανελαστική απόκριση των κατασκευών όπως το όριο διαρροής του χάλυβα fy των μελών, ο αριθμός των ορόφων ns, που επηρεάζει άμεσα την ιδιοπερίοδο του συστήματος, η μορφή της ελαστικής απόκρισης των κατασκευών, οι οποίες διακρίνονται σε καμπτικού και διατμητικού τύπου (shear type, flexural type) σύμφωνα με τον συντελεστή ρ όπως ορίζεται από τον Chopra (2007a), καθώς επίσης και την παράμετρο πλαστικών ροπών a που σχετίζεται με το είδος του αναπτυσσόμενου ανελαστικού μηχανισμού. Ο υστερητικός νόμος που χρησιμοποιήθηκε και περιγράφει την ανελαστική απόκριση των μελών υπό ανακυκλιζόμενη δράση ταυτίζεται με το διγραμμικό υστερητικό νόμο με κράτυνση 3%, με απομείωση της αντοχής των μελών που συνδέεται άμεσα με την τοπική πλαστιμότητα των μελών σε κάθε ανελαστικό κύκλο φόρτισης. Παραμετρικές αναλύσεις έγιναν επίσης με τη χρήση διγραμμικού νόμου υστέρησης με κράτυνση 3% χωρίς την απομείωση της αντοχής των μελών κατά την ανελαστική τους απόκριση, με στόχο την διερεύνηση της επιρροής στην αντοχή των μελών κατά την ανελαστική τους απόκριση. Για την πραγματοποίηση της παρούσας μελέτης 57 καταγραφές παρελθοντικών σεισμών μακριά από το σεισμικό ρήγμα, αποτέλεσαν την διέγερση για την εκτέλεση των δυναμικών μη-γραμμικών αναλύσεων ώστε να ληφθεί υπόψη η επιρροή του συχνοτικού περιεχομένου των επιταχυνσιογραφημάτων στην απόκριση των συστημάτων. Τέλος, παρουσιάζεται παράδειγμα που συγκρίνει την προτεινόμενη μέθοδο με την μέθοδο των δυνάμεων αποδεικνύοντας την αποτελεσματικότητά της. / In this project, a parametric design of steel moment resisting frames with square hollow section type columns (Square Hollow Section, SHS) and double tee type of section (IPE) beams was made. It was desired to develop an equation connecting the inelastic response characteristics of structures designed according to the force-based method but having as initial target a desired performance level in accordance with seismic design based on the direct displacement-design method. Furthermore, it was desired to estimate the influence of P-Δ phenomena to the inelastic response of 2D moment resisting steel frames in a more correct way. The influence of stability control in the design moment resisting steel frames is highlighted. Various parameters that affect the elastic and inelastic response of structures are used, such as the yield strength of steel members fy, the number of storeys ns, which directly affects the eigenperiod of the system, the type of the elastic response of the structures, which are divided into flexural and shear type according to the coefficient ρ as defined by Chopra (2007a), and also the parameter of plastic moments α associated with the type of the developing plastic mechanism. The hysteretic law used, which describes the inelastic response of members under cyclic action, is the bilinear hysteretic law with hardening 3% and deterioration of members’ strength directly associated with the local ductility of members in each inelastic loading cycle. In addition, extra parametric analyses were made by using bilinear hysteretic law with 3% hardening without deterioration of strength of members in their inelastic response, in order to investigate the influence of strength deterioration on the resistance for members in the inelastic range. To carry out this study, 57 records of past earthquakes far from the seismic fault were used to perform the dynamic non - linear analyses, in order to take into account the influence of the frequency content of the accelerograms on the response of the systems. Finally, examples are presented comparing the proposed method with the method of forces demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed method.