Rotational capacity of H-shaped steel beams under cyclic pure bending

摘要

This paper presents experimental study on effects of width-to-thickness ratio and loading history on cyclic rotational capacity of H-shaped steel beams subjected to pure bending. Eight Class 3 and 4 H-shaped beams with large width-to-thickness ratios were tested under four different loading histories. The coupling effect of local buckling and cracking on cyclic rotational capacity of the specimens was investigated. It was found that loss of the load-carrying capacity was mainly induced by local buckling, and ductile cracking was a secondary factor. The width-to-thickness ratio plays a dominant effect on the cyclic rotational capacity, and the loading history also plays an important role. The cyclic rotational capacity can decrease significantly due to premature elasto-plastic local buckling induced by a number of preceding plastic reversals with relative small strain amplitudes. This result is mainly correlated with the decreasing tangent modulus of the structural steel under cyclic plastic loading. In addition, a theoretical approach to evaluate the cyclic rotational capacity of H-shaped beams with different width-tothickness ratios was also proposed, which compares well with the experimental results.