A Numerical Study to Evaluate the Changes in Dynamic Properties of Various Steel Truss Types Under Fire Conditions

This study numerically examines the changes in dynamic properties of fire-damaged steel trusses made of square hollow sections subjected to uniform and non-uniform heating scenarios. After verifying the numerical models at both ambient and elevated temperatures, a vast number of the simulations were analysed using non-linear finite element software to evaluate the effects of fire scenarios, truss types, and fire-damaged levels on the fire dynamic characteristics of square hollow section Warren, Howe, and Pratt trusses. The results indicated that the natural frequency of steel trusses significantly decreased as the fire-damaged level increased. In the case of local fire, the natural frequencies of the trusses began to drop suddenly at temperatures above 550 °C. Whereas the drop in the natural frequency of the uniformly heated trusses started at even much lower temperature levels. Moreover, the decrease in the natural fundamental frequencies of the uniformly heated trusses was lower than the reduction rate of the modulus of elasticity at high temperatures due to the large non-linear deformations. Since the modification of the stiffness of the truss by simply the reduction factor of the elastic modulus of the steel may be inappropriate to calculate the fundamental frequency of the trusses in the local and global fires, a new method was introduced to calculate the fundamental frequency value of the steel trusses in the fire.