PARAMETRIC STUDY ON THE LATERAL TORSIONAL BUCKLING OF STAINLESS STEEL I BEAMS WITH CLASS 4 CROSS-SECTIONS IN CASE OF FIRE

For predicting the behaviour of beams with thin-walled I sections, named Class 4 in Eurocode 3 (EC3), it is necessary to account for the occurrence of both local and lateral torsional buckling (LTB). These instability phenomena, which are intensified at elevated temperatures, should be accurately considered in design rules. The fire design guidelines for stainless steel members, given in Part 1-2 of EC3, propose the use of the same formulae developed for carbon steel (CS) elements. However, these two materials have different constitutive laws, leading to believe that the use of those formulae should be validated. This work presents a parametric numerical study on the behaviour of stainless steel beams with Class 4 I sections at elevated temperatures. The influences of several parameters such as stainless steel grade, loading type and cross section slenderness are evaluated, and comparisons between the obtained numerical results and EC3 rules are presented.