Numerical Modelling and Benchmark Study of Fire Resistance of Stainless Steel Structural Elements

The validation of numerical models, for the behaviour of structures in case of fire, is crucial for the development of precise and safe design rules for members at elevated temperatures and for the application of advanced calculation methods, on part or complete building structures under fire. Recently, a new constitutive law model for stainless steel at elevated temperatures, based on a two-stage Ramberg–Osgood formulation, was proposed for inclusion in the second generation of Part 1–2 of Eurocode 3 (EC3). In order to better understand the fire behaviour of stainless steel structures and the influence of the abovementioned new constitutive law, the respective formulation was implemented in the SAFIR finite element program. In this work, after validation of that implementation against chosen benchmark tests, different numerical and experimental fire tests obtained from the literature are numerically modelled, considering axially compressed columns, beams and eccentrically loaded columns.