EUROSTEEL 2014, September 10-12, 2014, Naples, Italy

CYCLIC BEHAVIOR OF WELDED Q690D H-SECTION COLUMNS

CHEN Suwen1,2,CHEN Xing2, LU Zhili2, LI Guo-qiang1,2, WANG Yan-Bo2
1. State Key Laboratory of Disaster Reduction in Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
2. School of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
swchen@tongji.edu.cn, haha11334455@126.com, 2010lzl@tongji.edu.cn, gqli@tongji.edu.cn, 2ybwang@tongji.edu.cn

INTRODUCTION
High-strength steel (HSS) can significantly reduce member section, the amount of steel and
structural weights, leading to an increasing application in high-rise buildings, large space structures
and long-span bridges [1]. Around the world, a lot of researches have been carried out about HSS
with nominal yield strength of 460MPa, covering mechanical properties [2-5], ultimate bearing
capacities [2-6] and hysteretic behaviour [7]. From the researches, the Q460C welded H-section and
box-section columns show good seismic performance in terms of ultimate bearing capacity,
ductility, deformation ability and energy dissipation capacity. And the effect of initial geometric
imperfection and residual stress on the buckling behaviour of HSS columns is less detrimental than
that of normal strength steel columns [3-9]. Thus, the current structural steel standards are slightly
conservative for Q460C HSS members and can be used to the design of Q460C HSS members.
However, research about the behaviour of the Q690D HSS columns is still limited, especially on
hysteretic behaviour. In this paper, experimental and numerical studies on the cyclic behaviour of
Q690D welded H-section columns have been presented [7]. Firstly, tests of two Q690D welded Hsection columns under cyclic loading were carried out. Failure modes and hysteretic curves were
obtained. Then, a finite element model for simulating the cyclic response was built and verified
through comparison with test results.
1

EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM

1.1 Specimen
H-section test specimens were made of 16mm flame-cut Q690D steel plate produced by Wuyang
Steel Company. Fillet welding with high strength electrode ER110S-G was adopted. According to
the limit of bending member slenderness ratio, web width-thickness ratio and flange widththickness ratio from Chinese design codes [11][12], two H-section steel specimens were designed,
with the geometric mechanical parameters summarized in Table 1. In order to reduce the shrinkage
deformations caused by welding heat, an optimized welding sequence was adopted.
Table 1. Dimensions of H-section specimens
tw
tf
L0
Slendness
Axial force
B/ tf
H/ tw
n
mm
mm
mm
ratio
/kN
7.31
13.63
H-x
250
250
16
16
2505
52.2()
0.35
3617
(IV)
()
NoteH, B, tw, tf are section height, flange width, web thickness, flange thickness of section. L0 and n are calculated
length and norminal axial force ratio respectively. Values in parentheses are corresponding seismic rating arccoding to
GB50011-2010 [12].
Specimen
no.

H
mm

B
mm

1.2 Experimental facilities

The specimens were tested with the servo-controlled hydraulic loading system with 10000 kN
loading capacity in Tongji university. The specimens were loaded as a cantilever beam-column and
the test setup is illustrated in Fig.1. The bottom end of the specimens was fixed on the base and the
top end of the specimen was connected to an L-link with a hinge. In this way, the loading condition
for the cantilever beam-column is under constant vertical loading and cyclic horizontal loading is
applied. To prevent out-of-plane instability, lateral support was installed as shown in Fig.2, with
Teflon plate to reduce friction.

(a)

(b)

Fig. 1. a) Testing system; b) Test site

Fig.2. Lateral support for H-section specimens

The arrangements of linear varying displacement transducers (LVDTs) and strain gauges are shown
in Fig. 3 and Fig. 4. Strain gauges were attached at both ends of each specimen to monitor the
loading force and the moment applied on the specimen.

Fig. 3 Arrangement of LVDTs

Fig. 4 Arrangement of strain gauges

1.3 Loading protocol

According to the Specification of Testing Methods for Earthquake Resistant Building [13], both
force and displacement loading control were used in experiment and finite element analysis. A
preload with 10% of the maximum column strength was applied to check the test instrumentations
before the actual loading. In the actual loading, the axial load at the level of 35% of columns
strength was applied and maintained during the whole test. After that, the cyclic horizontal load was
applied using displacement control method according to the loading protocol as shown in Fig. 5, in

which dy is the horizontal displacement when the fiber at the edge of section begins yielding. The
tests stoped after the loading capacity dropped to 85% of the maximum value.

d/dy

5
4
3
2
1
0
-1
-2
-3
-4
-5

Cycle
Fig. 5. Loading protocol

1.4 Experimental results

Test observations of H-section specimens are summarized in Table 2. The failure modes and
hysteretic curves of the specimens are presented in Fig. 6 and Fig. 7 respectively. According to the
tests, the failure mode of the tested specimen is elasto-plastic local buckling and the specimens
showed good energy dissipation capacity.
Table 2. Test observations of H-section specimens
Specimen H-1
Loading
level
1st cycle at
1dy
1st cycle at
3dy
2nd cycle at
3dy
1st cycle at
4dy

Specimen H-2

Edge fiber of cross-section at the bottom of

column started to yield
Local buckling occurred in the flange at the
bottom of column
Horizontal bearing capacity reached the
maximum value

Loading
level
1st cycle at
1dy
1st cycle at
3dy
2nd cycle at
3dy

Edge fiber of cross-section at the bottom of

column started to yield
Local buckling occurred in the flange at the
bottom of column
Horizontal bearing capacity reached the
maximum value

The horizontal bearing capacity dropped to

66% of the maximum value

4th cycle at
4dy

The horizontal bearing capacity dropped to

85% of the maximum value

Observation

Observation

(a) H-1

(b) H-2
Fig. 6. Failure mode of H-section specimens

300

1000
750
500
250
0
-250
-500
-750
-1000

200

M(KNm)

F(KN)

100
0

-100
-200
-300
-200

-100

100

(mm)

(a) F- hysteretic curve of H-1

200

-10

-5

0
5
(%)
(b) M- hysteretic curve of H-1

10

1000
750
500
250
0
-250
-500
-750
-1000

300
200

M(KNm)

F(KN)

100
0

-100
-200
-300
-150 -100 -50

50

100

150

-5

(mm)

(%)

(d) M- hysteretic curve of H-2

Fig. 7. Hysteretic curves of H-section specimens

(c) F- hysteretic curve of H-2

Significant second order effect has been observed from the tests for HSS columns, which can be
seen from the comparison of
and
curves in Fig. 8. M is total moment,
) and second order moment
including first order moment (
(
).
is the
section plastic moment based on ideal elasto-plastic theory. This effect can be well explained with
the following factors: 1) The yield strain of HSS is larger than normal strength steel. 2) For the
same bearing requirement, the section of HSS column is usually smaller than normal strength steel
column, causing larger slenderness ratio and larger drift.
M/Mp

M1/Mp

M(M1)/Mp

1.5
0.5
0

-0.5
-1
-1.5
-10

-5

0
(%)

10

Fig. 8. The second order effect

FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS

2.1 Material property

ANSYS was used for numerical simulation. The measured material properties employed in the
finite element analysis were listed in Table 3 [10]. The stressstrain relationship was reproduced with
the Multi-linear kinematic hardening model. Von-Mises yield criterion and associated flow rule
were adopted in the analysis.
Table 3. Mechanical property of Q690D HSS
E/GPa
206

fy/MPa
780

fu/MPa
835

u
0.059

f y/ f u
0.93

2.2 Mesh and boundary conditions

A finite element model (FEM) for simulating the test was established, adopting 3-D solid element
SOLID185. Each SOLID185 element has 8 nodes, and each node has three degrees of freedom,
which can move along the XYZ direction. Loading scheme is shown in Fig. 8. Nodes on the bottom
plane of the column were fixed. A rigid plate was built on the top plane of the column for loading.
Displacement along weak axis was constrained at the top end in order to simulate lateral support
effect. Vertical concentrated force was applied at the centre of the loading plate, so did the cyclic
horizontal loading along the major axis (Fig. 9).

(b)

(a)
Fig. 9 (a). Schematic diagram of loading;

(b). Finite Element Model

VERIFICATION OF FINITE ELEMENT MODEL

The M- (M is the moment at the bottom of column; is the inter-storey drift angle) hysteretic
curves and M- ( is the curvature at the bottom of column) hysteretic curves obtained by FEA
and test are compared in Fig. 10 and Fig. 11. As can be seen from the figures, ultimate bearing
capacity and hysteretic curves from test and FEA are in good agreement. Only the stiffness of M-
hysteresis curve from test is a bit smaller than that of FEA. This phenomenon can be explained as
follows: Firstly, the end condition of the test specimens could not achieve the ideal fixed-end;
Secondly, there was a slight gap between the test loading plate and the hinge, which would result in
slight slip during the loading process; Thirdly, the stiffness degradation of material wasnt taken
into consideration during FEA.
Comparison between the test result and FEA result shows that built FEM can accurately predict the
hysteretic behaviour of Q690D welded H-section column.
1000
800
600
400
200
0
-200
-400
-600
-800
-1000

1000
800
600
400
200
0
-200
-400
-600
-800
-1000

Test Result
---FEA Result

M(KNm)

M(KNm)

Test Result
---FEA Result

-8

-6

-6
-4
-2
0
2
0
2
4
6
8
(%)
(%)
(a) Specimen H-1
(b) Specimen H-2
Fig. 10. Comparison of M- hysteretic curves between FEA result and test result
-4

-2

1000
800
Test Result
600
---FEA Result
400
200
0
-200
-400
-600
-800
-1000
-0.08-0.06-0.04-0.02 0

M(KNm)

M(KNm)

1000
800
Test Result
600
---FEA Result
400
200
0
-200
-400
-600
-800
-1000
-0.08-0.06-0.04-0.02 0

0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08

(m-1)

0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08

(m-1)

(a) Specimen H-1

(b) Specimen H-2
Fig. 11. Comparison of M- hysteretic curves between FEA result and test result

SUMMARY

In this paper, cyclic loading tests and corresponding numerical simulations of two Q690D welded
H-section columns were carried out. The main results are summarized as follows:
1) The F- and M- hysteretic curves obtained from tests show Q690D welded H-section columns
have good hysteretic behaviour.
2) Second-order effect of HSS columns is significant and cant be ignored.
3) The built finite element model has been verified through comparison of numerical and test
results.
5

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This study was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (Grant No.
2012BAJ13B02) and the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (Grant No.
12231200400), which are gratefully acknowledged.
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