Finite element study on axially loaded reinforced Square Hollow Section T-joints at elevated temperatures

This study numerically investigates the elevated temperature resistance of collar plate and doubler plate reinforced Square Hollow Section (SHS) T-joints subjected to brace axial compressive load. The extensive numerical simulations were performed to examine the effects of the geometrical parameters of main members and reinforcing plate on the fire resistance of reinforced SHS T-joints after verification of the numerical models based on the available test results. The corresponding unreinforced joints were also analysed as reference resistance at five different temperature levels (20 °C, 400 °C, 500 °C, 600 °C, and 700 °C). Results indicate that the elevated temperature capacity of SHS T-joints can be significantly increased by using a collar plate or a doubler plate. Although the initial stiffness of the doubler plate reinforced joints was higher than the collar plate reinforced joints, their capacity was similar to each other. Also, the fire resistance of the reinforced joints mainly depended on the brace-to-chord width ratio and reinforcing plate thickness to chord wall thickness ratio. However, there was no beneficial effect on the fire resistance of reinforced joints when the thickness of the reinforcing plate was greater than 1.5 times the chord wall thickness. Moreover, there was an insignificant effect of half-width to thickness ratio of the chord, reinforcing length and reinforcing type as long as the required limit values of the reinforcing length and width were used based on the Eurocode 3 EN 1993-1-8. It is worth mentioning that modifying the steel yield strength in the ambient temperature design method to calculate the capacity of the reinforced SHS T-joints at elevated temperatures may be unsafe. A new design method was developed to predict the capacity of a collar plate and doubler plate reinforced SHS T-joints subjected to brace compressive load in fire.