Plastic design of stainless steel continuous beams

In this paper an experimental study on eight simply-supported and four two-span continuous beams employing austenitic and duplex stainless steel rectangular hollow sections (RHS) is reported. In parallel with the tests, finite element models were developed. Upon validation against the experimental results, parametric studies were conducted to expand the available structural performance data over a range of cross-section slendernesses, structural systems and load configurations likely to occur in practice. The obtained experimental and numerical results along with collated test data were used to assess the accuracy of EN 1993-1-4 design provisions and to explore the possibility of plastic design for stainless steel indeterminate structures, simultaneously accounting for the effect of strain-hardening at cross-sectional level and moment redistribution exhibited by structures employing stocky cross-sections.