Testing of hot-finished high strength steel SHS and RHS under combined compression and bending

An experimental investigation into the cross-sectional behaviour of hot-finished high strength steel tubular sections, to support the assessment and development of structural design guidance, is presented. Two grades of quenched and tempered high strength steel – S690 and S770 and eight cross-sections – seven square hollow sections (SHS) and one rectangular hollow section (RHS), covering a wide range of local slenderness, were examined. This test programme consisted of twelve tensile coupon tests, five stub column tests and 30 short beam-column tests, with various initial loading eccentricities employed to achieve a spectrum of compression and bending combinations. Local geometric imperfection measurements were carried out on each test specimen using 3D laser-scanning, and a rational approach to analysing the local imperfection distributions using the scanned data was subsequently proposed. Following the experimental study, the current Eurocode 3 cross-section design provisions were evaluated through comparisons with the results from the present research and additional results from the literature. The experimental results and findings from the present study provide a basis for the development of numerical models and the enhancement of existing design methods in the future