Abstract
An experimental study was conducted to evaluate the effects of high temperature and strain rate on the compressive behavior of steel H-section stub-columns at high temperatures. On the basis of the experimental results obtained in this study, it was found that the ultimate load and the post buckling behavior of H-section stub-columns decreased with increasing the temperature and width-to-thickness ratios. The ultimate load of columns at 600 Celsius was reduced to 40 to30% of the maximum load at room temperature and was very sensitive to the strain rate. But the ultimate load was not sensitive to the width-to-thickness ratio at high temperatures. The results of tests at high temperatures were simulated by a numerical procedure. The results of the calculations clearly showed that numerical analysis can be used to provide accurate predictions of the local buckling characteristics of stub-columns at high temperatures. It was also shown that the effects of strain-rate on the post-buckling behavior of steel stub-columns at high temperatures cannot be disregarded.
