• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.185-200
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• 2007

Tubular construction is widely used in a range of civil and structural engineering applications. To date, the principal product range has comprised square, rectangular and circular hollow sections. However, hot-rolled structural steel elliptical hollow sections have been recently introduced and offer further choice to engineers and architects. Currently though, a lack of fundamental structural performance data and verified structural design guidance is inhibiting uptake. Of fundamental importance to structural metallic design is the concept of cross-section classification. This paper proposes slenderness parameters and a system of cross-section classification limits for elliptical hollow sections, developed on the basis of laboratory tests and numerical simulations. Four classes of cross-sections, namely Class 1 to 4 have been defined with limiting slenderness values. For the special case of elliptical hollow sections with an aspect ratio of unity, consistency with the slenderness limits for circular hollow sections in Eurocode 3 has been achieved. The proposed system of cross-section classification underpins the development of further design guidance for elliptical hollow sections.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.517-539
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• 2010

This paper presents the axial compressive behaviour of stub concrete-filled columns with elliptical stainless steel and carbon steel hollow sections. The finite element method developed via ABAQUS/Standard solver was used to carry out the simulations. The accuracy of the FE modelling and the proposed confined concrete stress-strain model were verified against experimental results. A parametric study on stub concrete-filled columns with various elliptical hollow sections made with stainless steel and carbon steel was conducted. The comparisons and analyses presented in this paper outline the effect of hollow sectional configurations to the axial compressive behaviour of elliptical concrete-filled steel tubular columns, especially the merits of using stainless steel hollow sections is highlighted.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.107-116
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• 2022

This paper presents results of numerical studies completed on unreinforced and doubler plate reinforced Elliptical Hollow Section (EHS) T-joints subjected to axial compressive loading on the brace member. Non-linear finite element (FE) models were developed using the finite element code, ABAQUS. Available test data in literature was used to validate the FE models. Subsequently, a parametric study was carried out to investigate the effects of various geometrical parameters of main members and reinforcement plates on the ultimate capacity of reinforced EHS T-joints. The parametric study found that the reinforcing plate significantly increases the ultimate capacity of EHS T-joints up to twice the capacity of the corresponding unreinforced joint. The thickness and length of the reinforcing plate have a positive effect on the ultimate capacity of Type 1 joints. This study, however, found that the capacity of Type 1 orientation is not dependent on the brace-to-chord diameter ratio. As for type 2 orientations, the thickness and length of the reinforcement have a minimal effect on the ultimate capacity. A new design method is introduced to predict the capacity of the reinforced EHS T-joints Type 1 and 2 based on the multiple linear regression analyses.

• Interaction and multiscale mechanics
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.143-156
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• 2008

Elliptical tubes may buckle in an elastic local buckling failure mode under uniform compression. Previous analyses of the local buckling of these members have assumed that the cross-section is hollow, but it is well-known that the local buckling capacity of thin-walled closed sections may be increased by filling them with a rigid medium such as concrete. In many applications, the medium many not necessarily be rigid, and the infill can be considered to be an elastic material which interacts with the buckling of the elliptical tube that surrounds it. This paper uses an energy-based technique to model the buckling of a thin-walled elliptical tube containing an elastic infill, which elucidates the physics of the buckling phenomenon from an engineering mechanics basis, in deference to a less generic finite element approach to the buckling problem. It makes use of the observation that the local buckling in an elliptical tube is localised with respect to the contour of the ellipse in its cross-section, with the localisation being at the region of lowest curvature. The formulation in the paper is algebraic and it leads to solutions that can be determined by implementing simple numerical solution techniques. A further extension of this formulation to a stiffness approach with multiple degrees of buckling freedom is described, and it is shown that using the simple one degree of freedom representation is sufficiently accurate for determining the elastic local buckling coefficient.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.313-325
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• 2018

Concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) members are commonly used as composite columns in modern construction. However, the current guidelines for members' fire design (EN1994-1-2) have been proved to be unsafe in case the relative slenderness is higher than 0.5. In addition, the simplified design methods of Eurocode 4 are limited to circular and square CFST columns, while in practice columns with rectangular and elliptical hollow sections are being increasingly used because of their architectural aesthetics. In the last years a large experimental research has been carried out at Coimbra University on the topic. They have been tested concrete filled circular, square, rectangular and elliptical hollow columns with restrained thermal elongation. Some parameters such as the slenderness, the type of cross-section geometry as well as the axial and rotational restraint of the surrounding structure to the column have been tested in order to evaluate their influence on the fire resistance of such columns. In this paper it is evaluated the influence of the boundary conditions (pin-ended and semi-rigid end-support conditions) on the behavior of the columns in case of fire. In these tests it could not be seen a marked effect of the tested boundary conditions but it is believed that the increasing of rotational stiffness increases the fire resistance of the columns.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.175-182
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• 2012

In this paper we are concerned with the performance of structural stability of torsion in square cross section of a beam with holes. The critical load is defined as the smallest load at which the equilibrium of the structure fails to be stable as the load is slowly increased from zero. The beams subjected to torsion are frequently encountered in general structures and these forces influence to the stability of structure. The boundary element method is found to be very efficient and accurate for the analysis of torsion problems including complex boundary conditions with respect to its simplicity and generality. In this paper, it is required to derive the boundary element formulation for torsion problem and integrate directly on the discrete boundary. To investigate the validity of the developed computer program, three distinctly solid cross-sections which are elliptical, rectangular and triangular one are analyzed, and comparisons are made with analytical approaches where these can also be used.