Engineering Structures 25 (2003) 10331043 www.elsevier.

com/locate/engstruct

A second-order inelastic model for steel frames of tapered members with slender web
Jin-Jun Li a, Guo-Qiang Li b,, Siu-Lai Chan c
c

R&D Department, Shanghai Maglev Transportation Development Company, 2520 Longyang Road, Shanghai, 201204, China b College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, 1239 Siping Road, Shanghai, 200092, China Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China Received 22 June 2002; received in revised form 29 January 2003; accepted 29 January 2003

Abstract A concentrated plasticity model is proposed for second-order inelastic analysis of the steel frames of tapered members with a slender web. Such signicant effects as residual stresses, initial geometric imperfection, gradual section yielding at the element ends, distributed plasticity within the element and local web buckling are considered in this model. Numerical examples on tapered compact columns, prismatic beam-columns with local buckling, a prismatic frame with local buckling and a tapered frame with local buckling are studied in this paper to verify the accuracy and efciency of the proposed analytical model. As an application, the column curves of tapered steel columns are obtained with the proposed analytical model, both excluding and including the local buckling effects of slender webs. Some meaningful conclusions are drawn in the end of this paper. 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Second-order inelastic analysis; Concentrated plasticity model; Steel frames; Tapered members; Slender web

1. Introduction The present approaches for second-order inelastic analyses of steel frame structures can be generally categorized into two types: concentrated plasticity model (plastic hinge method) and distributed plasticity model (plastic zone method) [12]. Two different distributed plasticity models exist, 3D shell FE and plastic zone method based on beam-column theory. The 3D shell FE is the fundamental distributed plasticity model in common sense to predict the actual response of steel frame structures [3], where the web plate and ange plates are discreted with a large number of 3D shell elements and non-linearities can be explicitly and exactly reected. Some widely applied software, such as ABAQUS and ANSYS are capable of being tools for these analyses. However, the second-order plastic zone method based on beam-column theory, with

Corresponding author: Tel: +86 21 6598 2975; Fax: +86 21 6598 3431. E-mail address: gqli@mail.tongji.edu.cn (G.-Q. Li).

much less degrees of freedom and therefore much less need for computer effort, is more applicable in practical analysis of steel frame structures. The plastic zone method can consider the complex distribution of plasticity through the volume of a structure by discretization of members along the length and over the cross-section [8,16,34], including the effects of residual stresses, initial geometrical imperfection, etc. However, it is still very time-consuming due to the necessary ne-mesh discretizations, even based upon present powerful computers [12,19]. The simple plastic hinge method is a simple and efcient approach for representing the inelastic behavior of steel frames. The material of a steel frame is assumed to be elastic-perfectly plastic and a second-order elastic analysis of the structure is performed until the plastic moment capacity is reached at the maximum moment section. An imaginary hinge is then placed in the structure at this location. This procedure is repeated until a sufcient number of hinges have formed to produce a mechanism [12]. However, it is found that the analytical results of the simple plastic hinge method are over-estimated in certain cases [12,19].

0141-0296/03/$ - see front matter 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0141-0296(03)00043-9

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Several novel plastic hinge methods, such as the rened plastic hinge method [29,30], modied plastic hinge method [20,21], notional load plastic hinge method [31], quasi plastic hinge method [2], and the model used in the NIDA (Nonlinear Integrated Design and Analysis for steel frame structures) software [9,10] have been proposed in the past decade. These improved plastic hinge methods seek to be as simple and efcient as the simple plastic hinge method while as accurate for the assessment of load-bearing capacity of steel frames as the plastic zone method. Two modications are made to account for: (1) the secant stiffness degradation at the plastic hinge location; and (2) the member stiffness degradation between two plastic hinges. The conventional plastic hinge analysis for steel frame structures assumes the section to be compact, and does not consider the degradation of the section capacity caused by local buckling. Blandford and Glass [6] considered the local web buckling of steel box sections in the static and dynamic frame analysis with a simple effective breadth formula and therefore treated the buckled prismatic members as non-prismatic members. Based on the rened plastic method, Kim and Lee [18] proposed the improved rened plastic-hinge method by introducing the LRFD equations for local buckling strength, to account for local buckling effects in secondorder inelastic analysis. With the similar form of the rened plastic hinge method, the pseudo plastic zone method can consider the local member buckling by improving the stiffness parameters with accurate stud beam-column 3D FE analysis and dening some equations such as the inelastic stability function and imperfection reduction equations [5]. Of course, these investigations were initiated for the prismatic steel structures. Steel frames comprising tapered beams and columns not only provide even distribution of structural strength, but also yield a design with less steel consumption. Since the structural strength along member length is non-uniform, the plastic zone method is, strictly speaking, required to predict the second-order inelastic response of tapered steel frames. Alternatively, step representation by dividing the tapered member into a large number of prismatic elements can be used for the same purpose [32]. However, both the plastic-zone method and the satisfactory step representation need great computational efforts and are not convenient for daily use in engineering design of tapered and non-compact steel structures. To the authors knowledge, few investigations were previously conducted on the second-order inelastic analysis of tapered steel structures. Li [26] conducted a research study and this paper presents a simplied but accurate concentrated plasticity model for second-order inelastic analysis of tapered and non-compact steel frame structures, where a modied plastic-hinge method is adapted to tapered member based on the corresponding elastic stiffness matrix of tapered elements. Effects of

local web buckling on the structural capacity are considered directly by re-calculating the elemental stiffness with the effective breadth formula under various stress states. Numerical examples on a tapered and compact column, prismatic and non-compact columns, a prismatic and non-compact steel portal frame and a tapered and non-compact steel portal frame are employed to examine the accuracy and efciency of the analytical model proposed in this paper. As an application, the column curves of tapered steel columns are obtained with the proposed analytical model, both excluding and including the effects of slender webs.

2. Basic assumption 1. The tapered steel member is shown in Fig. 1 and frames with such tapered members are studied in this paper. The height of the web is linearly varied with the anges symmetric and uniform in width along the member length. 2. The material of steel members is assumed to be elastic-perfectly plastic. 3. All members are initially straight. 4. The plane section remains plane after deformation. 5. Shear deformation is considered in the elastic stiffness matrix but its contribution to yielding is ignored. 6. Only local web buckling is considered and local ange buckling is ignored. 7. The frame is braced in such a manner as to preclude lateral torsional instability of any member. 8. Elastic unloading at plastic hinge is not considered.

3. Proposed concentrated plasticity model 3.1. Elastic stiffness matrix For the tapered member studied in this paper, the applied forces and deformations can be modeled as in

Fig. 1.

A steel tapered member.

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Fig. 2. Following the same procedure for prismatic beams [22,23], the exual equilibrium differential equation with non-dimensional form of the tapered TimoshenkoEuler beam element simultaneously considering effects of axial forces and shear deformation can be written as [24,26,27], a(z)y where a(z) EI(z)g(z), b(z) N , GAw(z) and A, Aw and I are respectively the overall area, web area and inertial moment of the cross-section at the location of distance from the original point of the element; and E and G are respectively elastic and shear modulus. By the Chebyshev Polynomial to represent functions, y, a, b can be expressed as,
M

f1 f 2 [ke] f4 f5 f1 f2 f7 f8

f1 f4 f1 f7

f3 f6 f3 f9 .

b(z)Ny

Ny

b(z)Q1 (M1 Q1z) A w(z) EI(z) , g(z) GA2 (z) w

(1)

The expressions of fi(i = 1,2,...,9) are given in Appendix A and the detail of derivation of Eq. (2ac) can be found in the previous publications [24,26,27]. From Fig. 2 the axial force within the tapered element is N EA(du / dx) (4)

and the axial equilibrium differential equation is dN dx E A(x) d 2u dx2 dA du dx dx 0 (5)

where u(x) is axial displacement. The element expression of axial stiffness matrix is given by [17], k11 k22 k12 k21 . 1 dx 0 A(x)
L

(6)

y(x)
n 0

ynxn

(2a)

Thus, the elastic stiffness equation of the tapered column element could be obtained as
M

a(x)
n M 0

anxn

(2b)

[k]{d} where

{f}

(7)

b(x)
n 0

bnxn

(2c)

{d} {f}

[u1,d1,q1,u2,d2,q2]T [N,Q1,M1,N,Q2,M2]T k11 0 0 0 k21 0 0 0 f1 0 f1 f2 f4 f5 0 f7 f8 k12 0 0 0 f1 f4 f1 f7 0 f3 f6 0 f3 f9 .

for the solution of Eq. (1), the elastic stiffness equation of the tapered beam element could be obtained as, [ke]{d} where {d} {f} [d1,q1,d2,q2]T, [Q1,M1,Q2,M2]T {f} (3) [k]

k22 0 f2 0 0

3.2. Initial and limit yielding surface equations It is necessary to provide the initial and ultimate yielding surfaces for cross-sections for second-order inelastic analysis using the concentrated plasticity model. A fully yielding limit surface equation for the maximum strength of I-sections was proposed [13]. This equation for the case of uniaxial bending about the strong axis of the cross-section has the simple form as N Ny
1.3

Fig. 2.

Applied forces and deformation of an element.

M Mp

1.0.

(8)

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The initial yielding surface including the effect of residual stresses may be dened as N 0.8Ny cM 0.9Mp 1.0. (9)

M, MsN and MpN stand respectively for applied moment, initial yield moment and full plastic moment at the end i of the element in the presence of axial force. 3.4. Concept of tangent modulus for tapered elements The concept of tangent modulus for prismatic elements was proposed to consider the plasticity spread within the ends of elements [12,29,30], which may be the results of residual stresses and large axial force to squash load ratio. The tangent / elastic modulus ratio based on the CRC column strength equations for prismatic members can be expressed as [12,29,30], Et E Et E 1.0 if N 0.5Ny N 4N 1 if N Ny Ny 0.5Ny. (14a) (14b)

In the above equations, Nand M are the axial load and moment applied to the section respectively, Ny = fyA and Mp are respectively the axial squash load and limit plastic moment of the section for axial load and moment applied separately, fy is the yield stress of material and c is the shape factor of cross-section. 3.3. Elastic-plastic incremental stiffness matrix Following the same procedure as the inelastic incremental stiffness equation for prismatic element [22,23], a similar equation for tapered element using the plastic-hinge model can also be obtained as [25], [kp]{ d} { f} (10) where { d} and { f} are the vectors of incremental nodal displacements and applied loads, [kp] is the elasticplastic tangent stiffness matrix, which can be calculated by [kp] where [L] ([E]T[G]T([ke] 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 [ ][ke])[G][E]) 1, [ ]
T

Since the ratios of axial force to squash load calculated at the two ends of a tapered element are different, the tangent modulus for tapered elements can be approximately re-written from Eq. (14a,b) as, Et A1 A1 A2 Et1 A2 A1 A2 Et2 (15)

[ke] [ke][G][E][L][E]T[G]T[ke]

(11)

diag[a1,a1,a1,a2,a2,a2], [E] , [G]

where A1 and A2 are respectively the sectional area of the two ends, Et1 and Et2 are representative of tangent modulus at the two ends and can be determined by Eq. (14a,b). 3.5. Effects of local web buckling When a high and thin web plate is used for tapered members of steel frames, the structural economy may be enhanced further. Under this circumstance, the ange outstand breadth-to-thickness ratio should be proportionally large in order that web and ange plates can provide mutual support in work stresses and sections have good economy [11]. In the Chinese code [7] for the design of lightweight steel portal frames, the maximum permitted web height-to-thickness ratio can be up to 250 for steels with nominal yield strength of 235 MPa and about 200 for steels with nominal yield strength of 345 MPa. Elastic buckling for slender webs possibly occurs even when the section is fully elastic. The local web buckling will generally lead to an evident reduction of element strength and therefore structural resistance but not structural failure. Although local ange buckling can occur after local web buckling and leads to further stiffness reduction [4], for the sake of simplicity only local web buckling will be considered in this current research. A series of sophisticated effective breadth formula for web plates under compression and bending were reported [33] and are employed in this study. For simply

1 1 2 2 ,0, , ,0, . diag N1 M1 N21 M2 In matrix [G], i (i = 1,2) is the yielding function at the end i of the element, dened as, N Ny
1.3

M . Mp

(12)

In matrix[ ], ai (i = 1,2) is the plastic hinge parameter representing the degree of gradual yielding at the end i of the element, dened by, ai Ri 1 Ri (13)

where

1 Ri 1 0

M MsN M MsN M M MpN MpN MsN sN M MpN

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src p 0.59 86 0.3sy b 0.44 29

p

src 0.3sy

(24)

b (25)

be1

be2 b.

If one side in compression and the other in tension 0), (s1 0,s2
Fig. 3. Simply supported rectangular plate in compression and bending.

be2 b h

(1 src 0.3sy 1

h)

be1 b
p

(26) 1.27 f2 29
p

supported rectangular plate shown in Fig. 3, the effective breadth, dened in Fig. 4, can be determined by the following formulae [33], be1 b b l0 A B C 1 a b 4l b2 4l l 1.0 src 11.9 sy src 12.4 sy 43
p

0.68 83

(27) 0.97 f3 (28)

(16) (17) (18) (19) l (20) 1.2 src sy (21) t b be1 be2

src 0.3sy b f

0.53

C(l l0)
p

A Bln

where f s1 s2 s1 s1 sE (29) (30)

0.05 0.542exp 0.09 0.107exp 157 0.03

p

src sy

sE

Ep2k 12(1 n2)

(31)

src 1 0.3sy

45

src f2 1 . 0.3sy 16

(22)

8.4 (0 f 1) (2.1 f)

(32a)

If both sides in compression (s1,s2 0), be2 b (1 hf) be1 b (23) k 1 500 10f2 13.37f
p

11.36(1 f 2)

(32b) (33)

1 150

src 0.3. sy

(34)

Fig. 4. Effective breadth of simply supported plates.

In above formulae, p and srcrepresent respectively the effects of initial imperfection and residual stresses on plate buckling, s1 and s2 are the maximum and minimum stresses along the plate sides (positive for tension), k and sE are the elastic buckling factor and the elastic buckling stress for simply supported rectangular plates. The above effective breadth formulae are used to recalculate the sectional area and inertial moment once the web boundary stresses are equal to the critical stresses.

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The reduction of structural stiffness is accomplished through the re-calculated sectional area and inertial moment in forming the elemental stiffness matrix for each element with web buckled. The parameters p / b and src / sy in Eqs. (33) and (34) concerning initial geometric imperfection and residual stresses are assumed to be constants and equal to 1/150 and 0.3 respectively in the proposed model. 3.6. Numerical scheme for non-linear nite element solution Second-order inelastic analysis of steel frames is a typical nite element non-linear analysis, and best solved for the incrementaliterative procedure. The modied NewtonRaphson method is employed to obtain the limit load of the structures in this paper.

Fig. 5. Relative error vs number of elements for a sharply tapered member.

4. Verication 4.1. Mesh convergence test The taper ratio of tapered columns can be dened as, r d1 1 d2 (35)

proposed elements are enough to obtain the strength capacity with sufcient accuracy. 4.2. Prismatic non-compact beam-columns To examine section capacity of thin-walled I-sections in combined compression and major axis bending, Test series I and II were performed at the University of Sydney [15]. The section capacities of eight prismatic beamcolumns with local web buckling were obtained in Test Series I. These tested steel beam-columns are analyzed here, both ignoring and considering the effects of local web buckling. The ratios of analysis-to-test results are illustrated in Fig. 6. It can be observed that a great deviation exist in all cases but the last one with pure bending (moment-tothrust ratio being 1) when ignoring local web buckling, nevertheless good coincidence occurs when considering those effects.

where d1 and d2 are respectively the larger and smaller section height. Dening the effective length factor K and non-dimen sional slenderness parameter l for tapered columns as, K p L EI2 Pcr (36)

where Pcr is the elastic critical load of the tapered column under axial compression, L is the member length and I2 is the inertial moment at the smaller end, and l l p sy E KL prx2 sy E (37)

where rx2 is the gyrus radii at the smaller end, sy is yielding strength and slenderness parameter l KL . rx2 (38)

For a tapered compact column with r = 4, l = 1.265 and subjected to residual stresses, initial geometric imperfection with sinusoid pattern of L/1000 amplitude and axial compression, the relationship between element number and relative error of capacity results by the proposed method and step representation (ten prismatic elements) are shown in Fig. 5. It can be observed that even for such sharply tapered columns, i.e. r = 4, four

Fig. 6.

Prismatic non-compact steel beam-colimns.

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4.3. A prismatic non-compact frame A series of large-scale tests of prismatic steel frames with non-compact sections were conducted at the Queensland University of Technology [4] to validate the distributed plasticity analysis and pseudo plastic zone analysis. Test Frame 4 is used here to verify the proposed method to prismatic steel frames with local buckling. Fig. 7 gives the horizontal loaddisplacement (for the top of right column) curves of the test and analytical results, both ignoring and considering the effects of local web buckling. The ratios of analysis-to-test limit loads are respectively 1.20 when ignoring local buckling, and 1.06 when considering local web buckling. As shown in Fig. 7 the analytical curve with local web buckling provides a better prediction to the test result. 4.4. A tapered non-compact frame A series of large-scale tests of tapered steel portal frames with non-compact sections have been conducted at Tongji University [26,28], where the Test Frame 1 is presented here to verify the proposed method of the analysis of tapered steel frames with member local buckling. Test Frame 1 is a full-scale, single-bay and tapered steel portal frame with sufcient out-of-plane restraints, rigid knee and ridge joints and pinned column bases, as shown in Fig. 8. The member sections are non-compact. The web height-to-thickness ratio and ange outstand breadth-to-thickness ratio of the members for the frame are 127 and 10.42 respectively. Such a frame may occur at local web buckling even in fully elastic state and local ange buckling in the elasto-plastic state [11]. Vertical loads were only applied to Test Frame 1, exerted by jacks incrementally till the structural failure. The general arrangement of the test set-up for Test Frame 1 is illustrated in Fig. 9. The on-site overview of the test of Test Frame 1 is shown in Fig. 10. The elastic modulus and yielding strength of the steel used for Test

Frame 1 are respectively 197 GPa and 394 MPa, which were obtained by standard material tension tests. At a load of 32 kN exerted by each jack, Test Frame 1 began to unload, indicating that the maximum capacity of the frame had been achieved. Test Frame 1 failed in the mode of in-plane instability due to the yielding and spread of plasticity over the frame members caused by the combination of axial compression force, bending moment, residual stress and local buckling. Plastic local buckling deformations were observed at the region adjacent to the knee beam-to-column connection and the ridge beam-to-beam connection, as shown in Fig. 11. Curves of the experimental and the analytical load vs vertical displacement at the ridge joint are plotted in Fig. 12. A good correlation between the two sets of results was observed.

5. Application 5.1. Column curves of tapered compact I-columns Tapered columns are widely used in steel portal frame structures. For safety, the strength and stability of tapered columns are specied in the codes for steel structure design. For example, the equation for prismatic column checks is adapted to tapered columns after introducing the special effective length factors Kr in the American Code [1]. The Chinese Code [7] adopts a similar treatment for the safety check of tapered columns. But the effective length factors are generally calculated from the elastic stability analysis, and therefore it is necessary to exactly predict the actual column capacities of tapered columns and examine the adequacy of abovementioned code method. Adopting the elastic analysis with the obtained elastic stiffness equation in this paper, the effective length factor K of simply supported tapered columns dened in Eq. (36) can be expressed as a function of tapered ratio [26] as, K 0.3155 (1 0.3155)exp( r / 1.56). (39)

Fig. 7. A prismatic non-compact steel frame.

Adopting the second-order inelastic analysis for tapered compact columns with various tapered ratios [see Eq. (35)] and various slenderness [see Eqs. (37) and (38)], column curves are obtained and shown in Fig. 13. All calculated tapered columns are subjected to residual stresses, initial geometric imperfection with sinusoid pattern of L/1000 amplitude and axial compression, without consideration of local web buckling. The coded column curves respectively from LRFD [1] and GBJ 17-88 [14] for prismatic compact columns are also given in Fig. 13, which correspond with the curve of r = 0 obtained by the proposed model. The approach treating tapered steel columns as prismatic columns with specied effective length factor K

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J.-J. Li et al. / Engineering Structures 25 (2003) 10331043

Fig. 8.

The dimensionsof test frame 1 (mm).

Fig. 9.

Test set-up fpr test frame 1.

is generally conservative for compact sections in design, since from Fig. 13 the real column strengths increase with the taper ratio under the same slenderness factors. 5.2. Column curves of tapered I-columns with slender web As previously mentioned, tapered I-columns are widely used in lightweight steel portal frame structures and generally comprise a slender web. So, it is more meaningful to predict the actual column capacities for tapered columns with slender web than those of tapered compact ones. To achieve this, a series of tapered columns manufactured with Chinese Q345 steel material, of maximum web height-to-thickness ratio of 200 and constant ange outstand breadth-to-thickness ratio of 10 are selected, and the predicted column curves are plotted in Fig. 14. Comparing Fig. 14 with Fig. 13 we can see local web buckling reduces the capacities of tapered non-compact columns. The maximum possible degradation can be more than 5% in the cases considered in this paper. Further, the coded approaches for tapered and non-compact steel columns such as CECS and LRFD are uncon-

servative when the ratio of compression-to-squash load is larger than 0.8

6. Conclusions To develop a theoretical approach for second-order inelastic analysis of steel frames of tapered members with slender web, a concentrated plasticity model is proposed in this paper. The following concluding remarks can be drawn. 1. In the proposed analytical model, the effects of residual stresses, initial geometric imperfection, gradual section yielding at the element ends, distributed plasticity within the element and local web buckling can be taken into account. 2. Numerical examples show that the proposed method has a fast rate of mesh convergence since only four tapered elements are sufcient even for the analysis of sharply tapered (r = 4) steel members, while 20 elements are needed for the similar accuracy when step representation is adopted. 3. Validation of the proposed model is conducted by

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1041

Fig. 12.

A tapered non-compact steel frame.

Fig. 10. On-site overview of test frame 1.

Fig. 13.

Column curves for tapered compact columns.

comparing the analytical results with those of experimental dates for prismatic non-compact I-sections, a prismatic non-compact steel portal frame and a tapered non-compact steel portal frame. Good accuracy of the proposed model is conrmed. 4. Column curves of tapered compact column are predicted by the proposed analytical model and compared with the coded prismatic column curves of LRFD and GBJ 17-88. It can be found from the col-

umn curves that treating tapered columns as prismatic ones through an appropriate effective length factor is generally conservative for capacity checks. 5. Local web buckling evidently reduces the capacities of tapered columns with slender web. The maximum possible degradation can be more than 5% in the cases considered in this paper. Although the axial forces in tapered columns of the steel portal frames are small, it should be noted that the coded formula for tapered

Fig. 11. Plastic local buckling deformations at the failure of test frame 1.

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y10

2(LNb0 a1)y7 LN(b1 6a0 c2y5 c3y8 c4, y12 c2y6 c 6y 6 c7y10) (c1y2 c7y8 (c5y2 c2y7 c6y7 c3y10), y14

L)y2

, y11

c 1y 1

c3y9, c 5y 1 c6y5 c7y9,

y13 y16

c8 y3, y15

References
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Fig. 14. Column curves for tapered non-compact columns.

and non-compact columns such as CECS and LRFD are unconservative when the ratio of compression-tosquash load is larger than 0.8.

Acknowledgements The authors acknowledge the nancial support of the project Advanced Analysis & Design of Steel Portal Frames Considering Integrated Limit States, in the Scheme of University Principle Professor Support, by the Education Ministry of PR China.

Appendix A f1 y15 ,f y11y15 y14y12 2 y12y14 ,f y11y15 y14y12 4 f5 y13 y11f2 , f6 y12 f2L f5, f9 y1 L ,y GAw(0)g(0) 2 L ,y GAw(1)g(1) 4 y5 y8 Lb0(Ny1 2a0 y13y15 y16y12 ,f y11y15 y14y12 3 1 y11f1 , y12 y11f3 ,f y12 7 f3L f6, L ,y g(0) 3 L , g(1) L2 ,y 2a0 7 LNb0y2 , 2a0 L) , y9 f1L N f4, f8

L) , y6 L(b1 6a0

2(LNb0 a1)y5 2(LNb0 a1)y6 6a0

L)(Ny1

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