Comparative study between inelastic compressive buckling analysis and Eurocode 3 for rectangular steel columns under elevated temperatures

This paper presents an inelastic buckling behavior analysis of rectangular hollow steel tubes with geometrical imperfections under elevated temperatures. The main variables are the temperature loads, slenderness ratios, and exposure conditions at high temperatures. The material and structural properties of steels at different temperatures are based on Eurocode (EN 1993-1-2, 2005). In the elastic buckling analysis, the buckling strength decreases linearly with the exposure conditions, whereas the inelastic buckling analysis shows that the buckling strength decreases in clusters based on the exposure conditions of strong and weak axes. The buckling shape of the rectangular steel column in the elastic buckling mode, which depicts geometrical imperfection, shows a shift in the position at which bending buckling occurs when the lower section of the member is exposed to high temperatures. Furthermore, lateral torsional buckling occurs owing to cross-section deformation when the strong axial plane of the model is exposed to high temperatures. The elastic buckling analysis indicates a conservative value when the model is exposed to a relatively low temperature, whereas the inelastic buckling analysis indicates a conservative value at a certain temperature or higher. The comparative results between the inelastic buckling analysis and Eurocode 3 show that a range exists in which the buckling strength in the design equation result is overestimated at elevated temperatures, and the shapes of the buckling curves are different.