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Behavior and design of concentrically loaded duplex stainless steel single equal-leg angle struts

Stainless steel has garnered attention as an alternative structural material to conventional carbon steel due to its corrosion resistance properties and aesthetic appearance. Of interest are single angles, which are frequently used in trusses, transmission towers, and as bracing diaphragms. When subjected to compression, knowledge concerning the behavior, analysis, and design of stainless steel single angles is very limited.

This thesis addresses the behavior of duplex stainless steel single equal-leg angles subject to concentric compressive loading. Two complementary approaches are used in this study, the first of which was experimental and consisted of conducting 33 full-scale buckling tests on S32003 duplex stainless steel single equal-leg angle components. Angles specimens had slenderness ratios ranging from 35 to 350 and leg width-to-thickness ratios of 7.5 to 12.3. In the second approach, computational models that accounted for material nonlinearity, material anisotropy, and geometric out-of-straightness were developed and validated using the experimentally obtained test results. These models were subsequently used to perform numerical buckling experiments to shed light on the behavior of axially loaded compression duplex stainless steel single angles for a wide range of practical leg width-to-thickness ratios.

Results from the full-scale tests and from the numerical models are shown to correlate well with the classical mechanics-based formulae, which considers nonlinear stress-strain relationships, for predicting flexural and flexural-torsional buckling strengths of singly symmetric stainless steel members. Finally, design criteria in the form of load and resistance factor design (LRFD) with a reliability index of 3 for buckling limit states are proposed for possible adoption in future US national standards.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:GATECH/oai:smartech.gatech.edu:1853/49074
Date20 September 2013
CreatorsReynolds, Nicholas A.
ContributorsZureick, Abdul-Hamid
PublisherGeorgia Institute of Technology
Source SetsGeorgia Tech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive
Languageen_US
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeDissertation
Formatapplication/pdf

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