A yield surlace equation for doubly symmetrical sections Lian Duan and Wai-Fah Chen School of Civil Engincering, Purdue University, West Lafavetie, IN 47907, USA A four-parameter yield surface equation for the yield strength of doubly symmetrical steel sections (wide-flange, thin-walled circular tube, thin walled box, rectangular and solid circular sections) under axial force combined with biaxial bending is presented, The proposed yield surface equation represents @ smooth and convex surface in the three-dimen. sional stress-resultant space. Extensive comparisons have been mad: with the results of exact yield surfaces, providing the confirmation of thy validity of the proposed equation. The proposed equation meets ai special conditions and is easy to implement in a computer-basec structural analysis. It is a useful limiting surface equation for mos doubly symmetrical sections, and is therefore recommended for genera use. Keywords: biaxial bending, computer, engineering mechanics, plastic analysis, steel, strength, structural engineering, yield surface With the advent of computers, there is a growing interest in direct application of the inelastic analysis method to frame design. The yield or limit surface concept has been conveniently used in inelastic frame analysis to describe the full plastification of steel sections under the action of axial force combined with biaxial bending. Studies of the yield surface under biaxial loading have been reported by Ringo!, Sharma?, Bruinette®, Pirang and Toland‘, Mor- tis and Fenves®, Santathadaporn and Chen®, and Chen and Atsuta’, among others. Typical three-dimensional yield surface for steel cross-sections can be found in the book by Chen and Atsuta', Any rigorous analysis which attempts to derive theor- etically a closed-form equation for a particular section is destined to be complex except for axially symmetrical sections. Yield surfaces for some commonly used ste! sections can be expressed in terms of the location of the neutral axis®®, However, for a practical structural analy- sis, it is more convenicat to approximate the yield surface by’a single equation™!®, Such a yield surface equation hhas been developed by Orbison et al? for light- to medium-weight wide-flange sections. The aim of this paper is to provide a practical yield surface equation for most commonly used stecl sections in building frames. In the first part of this paper, a general expression is proposed to describe the yield’ surfaces of all doubly symmetrical steel sections including wide-flange, thin- walled circular tube, thin-walled box, rectangular and solid circular sections. The proposed expression is de- fined by four parameters which are dependent on section type, In the latter part of the paper, the four parameters .541-0296/90;0201 14 06/803.00, 4° 1990 Butterworth & Co (Publishers) Lia i 194 Eng. Struct. 1990, VoI.12. Apri =D Ni of the yield surface equation are determined for various types of sections. Extensive evaluations of the proposed equations are then made by comparing with the results of exact theoretical yield surfaces. The general valdiy of the equation is confirmed by its good agreement with the exact solutions. It shows that the propsed yield surface equation is smooth and conves, satisfies all special cases, and is easy to use with few numerical difficulties. in for doubly General yield surface expres symmetrical sections We shail adopt the following non-dimensional quantities P M, M, Pm Ae Ww where P = axial force M, = bending moment about x-x principal axis bending moment bout y=» princi P, = axial yield strength plastic moment about x-x principal axis plastic moment about y-y principal axis ‘The general shape of yield surface for « doubly symmetr 1 be described cal steel seetion as shown in Figure’ 1 approximately by the following general equ msl = phy + mel — phy =U = ph = pin = 0 “WyFigure T Typical veld suctace for doubly symmetrical sections where the four parameters %,, «and fi, are dependent on sectional shapes and area distribution, Subscripts x and y' are with respect to the x-x and y-y axes, respecti- vely. Equation (2) is an alternative expression of the section strength interaction equation proposed pre- viously by Duan and Chea! as follows (any ae) 7 4) in which My. is the moment capacity considering the TANUERCS Of Sin axial force equal to 1 — Equation (2) satisfies all special cases, ie, when p = m= 1; when p=m,=0, m,=1; and when 1m, =m, =0, p= 1. It represents a smooth and convex yield surface, and is easy to implement in a computer program with few nurnerical difficulties sation of parameters fi for uniaxial In recent works’*19, it has confirmed that equation (5) ives a close approximation of the theoretical ultimate strength interaction curve, ie, yield surface, under uniax- jal loading phem=d o) ‘The parameter fl in equation (5) defines the shape of the interaction curve. > 1 implies that the yield curve is, conver: f= 1 describes a linear relationship between axial force und uniaxial bending; and ft < I resulis in a curve that is concave. Depending on sectional shapes and area distribution, the exponent ff can be determined by tither a theoretical derivation or a curve-fitting ap- proach, Rectangular section (ion under uniaxial bending the interaction equation For a rectangular about the x= axis oF yy st as been theoretically derived Pema CO} Exact. equation (6 a re im, (or ay) Figure 2 Yield surtace of vectangular seetion under uniaxial (x-x or yoy) benging f= 2is valid for uniaxial bending about both the x-x and y-y principal axes, ie, fly = B, = 2. Equation (6) is shown in Figure 2, Solid circular section A closed-form yield surface equation is derived here for a solid circular section under axial force combined ith uniaxial bending moment. It has the form ot _sin(2 a 2 pt Ssin”*(m? ‘The exact yield surface equation (7) is shown in Figure 3. Equation (5) with fi = 2.1 becomes pPleme=l (8) = bxvet equation (7) nH Proposed: equation (8) oa x 0.2 eal oo 33 aa ° mtn) Figuie 3 Comparison of yield surtaces of told cincular sections ‘under Unianal bonding Fon Stic 1849 Vat 12 Amrit 196Yield surface equation for doubly symmetric sections: L. Duan and W.-F, Chen Equation (8) is also shown in Figure 3 for comparison. 1 is scen that equation (8) can deseribe the behaviour of a solid circular section very well Thin-walled circular section ‘The exact yield surface equation for thin-walled mem- bers has bees obtained for circular tubes*'* m= ool r) =0 ro) Equation (3) with the exponent f= 1.75 gives'? ' (10) ‘The exact solution, equation (9), is compared with the approximate, equation (10), in Figure 4. A rather accur- ate estimation for sectional strength of circular tubular sections is observed, pe em Wide-flange seetion under strong axis (x-x) bending ‘The wide-flange type is most widely used section in building frames. The theoretical analysis® has shown that strong axis bending interaction curves of wide-flange American shapes are insensitive to the weight of the shape. The exact yield surfaces reported by Santathada- porn and Chen® for the most representative light- to medium-weight wide-flange section, WI2 x 31, and heavy-weight section, W14 x 426, are shown in Figure 5. Taking fi, = 1.3, we have!! ay “The yield surface contour obtained from equation (11) is, ‘compared with the exact solution reported by Santatha- daporn and Chen® in Figure 5. Except for the region of lower axial force p where equation (11) is slightly less than the theoretical curves, equation (11) is in good agreement with both results ofthe exact light- and heavy: weight sections. — crner (Santathaas: porn set Chen?) Proposes, ‘equation (11) wiz (light) oe aT saa v0 Figure 5 Comparison of yield surtaces of wide-tlange sections Under sirong als (x=) bending Wide-flange section under weak axis (y-y) bending For weak-axis ())-)) bending of wide-flange sections, the yield surfaces are more sensitive to the weight than that of strong axis (x-x) bending’, Figure 6 shows the exact interaction curves for a typical light-weight section WI2 x 31 (A,/4; = 1) and a typical heavy-weight sec~ tion W12 « 436 (A,/4, = 0.466) bent about its weak axis {y-3) Itis obvious that the smaller the ratio of web area to flange area (Ay/A,), the lower the yield curve, due to an increment of the area distributed far away from the centroid axis. Herein, we propose: a2 —— exeet, equation (31 A= Proposed, equation (19) ° Figure 4 Comparison of yiold surtaces of thin-walled circular tubular sections under uniaxint bending \ i 4 L 1 L wr Ba 8S OE 10 a, my Baa antares porn and Chen*) — Proposed. ‘equation (13) wi2x2t (ight) wrncere (nev? Figure 6 Comparison of yield suraces of wide-flange sections Conder wank amis (y-y bondingEquation (5) then becomes ! «a3 Equation (13) together with equation (12) are plotted in Figure 6. At is seen that equation (13) is very clase to the exact yield surfaces for both sections WI2 x 31 and. WIA x 426, phe, Thin-walled box section The behaviour of a thin-walled box section under uniaxial loading is almost the same as that of a wide- fiange section bent about its strong axis (x-x). The sectional strength of a thin-walled box section depends only on its area distribution, or its width-to-depth ratio B = Bit us shown in Figure 7. This effect should be included in the f factor. The following fi equation has been proposed by Duan and Chen!? f=2-05B213 «aay The comparison of equation (14) with the exact inelastic yield curves is shown in Figure 7. 1econfirms the su lity of equation (5) using the value of f in equation (14) for a width-to-depth ratio B varying from 0.4 to 2.5. Note that the width B is always parallel to the bending axis in ‘equation (14) Determination of parameters « for biaxial loading The exponents a, and a, define the shape of a yield surface in the three-dimensional space. For axially sym- metrical sections, these biaxial bending equations can be rigorously derived. For other sections, they depend on sectional types and axial force ratio, and will be deter- mined by a curve-fitting approach, —— et (2n08 18) ana cnea'®) | ~ Proposed. equation (08) ain =o.4 02 oT 88 10 1, lar ay) Figure 7 Comparison of yield surfaces of thin-walled box sections, ‘under uoianal benching | ol Figure 8 Comparizon of yield surfaces of eoctangulae sections ‘unde biaxial Bending Rectangular section The yield surface of rectangular sections under biaxial Joading can be expressed exactly in terms of the location, of the neutral axis*, Since the exact values of f, = f, = = 2, we choose arama T+ l3p 0s) then equation (2) reduces to mt emt (= pry 0 6) Equation (16) together with equation (15) are compared with the exaet yield surface equations derived previously. by Santathadaporn and Chen® in Figure 8 for the cases of p = 0.0.3,0.5, 0.7 and 0.9. A good agreement is generally observed Solid circular section Because of axial symmetry, equation (8) can be rewrit- ten for the case of biaxial loading as md m2 (1 = py? = 0 an for solid circular in which we have used @, = 0, sections under biaxial loading, Thin-walled circular section Similar to the solid circular section, the yield surface equation (10) for uniaxial bending can be expressed in 9 different form of the case for biaxial loading, ic, a, 2, = 0 = 2, and equation (2) reduces to sy +n = 1 = pers? Wide-flanye section jeld surface ean be described inding on the location of the ‘enves® derived five complex For biaxial loadin cexacily by 12 equations dej neutral axis, Morris andViold surlace equation for doubly synunetsie sections, L. Duan and W.-F, Chen equations to express the yield surface for wide-Alange sections. In the proposed equation (2), the exponents a and 2, are assumed to have different values, because of the section’s different area distributions about the strong axis (x-x) and weak axis (yy). From a curve-fitting. approach'®, we obtain a, = 2 and 1 1242p i) Equation (2) becomes iQ — phy + mah == pyr where phy (20) Py ay Figure 9 shows the comparison between equation (20) and the exact inelastic solutions for the light-weight section W12 x 31 for the cases of p = 0, 0.4, 0.6 and 0. Figure 10 is for the heavy-weight section WI4 x 426. Referring to Figures 9 and 10, we see that equation (20) gives a realistic representation of the actual plastic be~ haviour of wide-flange sections under biaxial loading. Thin-walled box section ‘The parameters @, and a, for a thin-walled box section under biaxial loading may be taken to be the same, since the area distribution is the same about its two principal axes, We propose therefore the following equation'? for a yan LT+ LSp 2) while equation (2) has the form mg — pry + mg ~ poy? =O = Pl = phy = 0 3) Saat Baniatnace pore and Chen®) Proposed. equation (26) ST Somtneiao] porn ant Chen®s 2 Proposes equation (20) Fioue 10 Comparigons of yield suraces of wide-tlange heevy sections (W14 % 426) wader biaxial bending where A Note that fy is different from f, for rectangular box sections. Only for the square box section (B= 1), we have fy =, = 1.5. Comparisons of equation (23) with the exact inelastic solutions'® are shown in Figures 11 and 12. The width-to-depth ratio about the x-x axis, B = B/Hs, is taken to be 0.4 and 1.0, and the axial force ratios p = 0,0.4,0.6and 08 in these figures, tis seen that the correlation is fairly good, —0SB2 13 24) Exact (Zhou Tey ‘and Chen 0 Proposed, equation (23) | | | oxo | i ons 6 | ond ‘| oe | | oak. 1 eal 8.9 os va 88 oy 1.0 i BI 10 Figue 9. Comparisons of yield surlaces of wide-Nanga tight see- Figure 1T_ Comparisons ovoid surfaces of thin-walled saute Box tions (W12 x 31) under biaxial bending sections under braiat easing,Yield surface equation for doubly symmetric sections: t. Duan and W..F, Chen ~ Exact (2now and chen") 2 Proposed, by equation (23) Figure 12 Comparisons of yield surfaces of thin-walled rectangu: lar box sections (B/H = 0.4, x-« axis) undo Liaxal bending Conclusions A general yield surface equation for commonly used doubly symmetrical stecl sections (wide-flange, thin- walled circular, thin-walled box, rectangular and solid circular sections) under biaxial loading is proposed. The four parameters in the proposed equation depend on sectional types. The proposed equation represents a smooth and convex yield surface in the three-dimen- sional space, and satisfies all special cases. Furthermore, the equation is casy to implement with few numerical difficulties, Extensive evaluations and comparisons with exact theoretical results confirm the validity of the pro- posed yield surface equation, equation (2) Notation A flange area of wide-flange section, A. web area of wide-flange section B width-to-depth ratio of box section m non-dimensional bending moment M bending moment M, plastic moment moment capacity considering the influence of Myo axial force Pp non-dimensional axial force P axial force Pe, axial yield strength « parameter for uniaxial loading # parameter for biaxial loading Subscripts x xox axis y poy axis References 1 Rinpo, BC. Faibrim appoach tothe ukinate strengih a hain eaded samen PAD. Diserotion, Unies of Michigan, 964, Unveraty Miciofinn Ine, Ann Arbor Mt 2. Sharma, SS "timate tenth of sts! columns ander Bsa Cecemrc los. Ph. 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