Fire performance curves for unprotected HSS steel columns

The behaviour of steel column at elevated temperature is significantly different than that at ambient temperature due to its changes in the mechanical properties with temperature. Reported literature suggests that steel column may become vulnerable when exposed to fire condition, since its strength and capacity decrease rapidly with temperature. The present study aims at investigating the lateral load resistance of non-insulated steel columns under fire exposure through finite element analysis. The studied parameters include moment-rotation behaviour, lateral load-deflection behaviour, stiffness and ductility of columns at different axial load levels. It was observed that when the temperature of the column was increased, there was a significant reduction in the lateral load and moment capacity of the non-insulated steel columns. Moreover, it was noted that the stiffness and ductility of steel columns decreased sharply with the increase in temperature, especially for temperatures above 400°C. In addition, the lateral load capacity and the moment capacity of columns were plotted against fire exposure time, which revealed that in fire conditions, the non-insulated steel columns experience substantial reduction in lateral load resistance within 15 minutes of fire exposure.