ANALYSIS OF CREEP BEHAVIOR OF HIGH YIELD POINT STEELS YP400, YP500 COLUMNS AT ELEVATED TEMPERATURES

Abstract

This paper develops a methodology to investigate the creep behavior of high yield point steels YP400 and YP500 at high temperatures using the finite element program Abaqus. The creep models developed in this study were based on a series of tensile tests conducted under constant temperature conditions. The thermal expansion coefficients of the steels have been identified from the column test results. In addition, a user subroutine CREEP was developed to perform a more precise analysis of material creep effects. The effects of plastic properties, thermal properties, and initial imperfection on the time-dependent behavior of high yield point steels have been investigated. It was found that creep must be properly considered to accurately simulate the behavior of the YP400 and YP500 steel columns at elevated temperatures analytically.