Shear Resistance of Thin Metal Plate at Non-Uniform Elevated Temperatures

Abstract

The shear resistance of thin metal plate consists of three components: shear buckling, the tension field effect and contribution of the flanges. This study considers the first two. The shear resistance of metal plate at elevated temperatures is known when temperature across the plate is constant. However, in many practical applications, such as webs of all-metal sandwich panels and slim floor beams in fire, the temperature distribution across the plate is non-uniform.

This study presents the results of a FEM analysis of thin carbon steel, aluminium and stainless steel plates at different non-uniform elevated temperatures. The temperature distributions were motivated by fire tests in literature (on slim floor beam and sandwich panel) and FEM calculations based on the general heat transfer theory. Material and geometric non-linearity were applied in the model. The material models were obtained from the most novel EN standards. The imperfections for the analysis are introduced by superimposing the eigenmodes of the plates.

The benchmarking cases used to validate the FEM models are resistances of the plates at uniform elevated temperatures. These results are compared to the test results available in literature.

Two methods for predicting the shear buckling, post-buckling and ultimate shear resistances of thin metal plates at non-uniform elevated temperatures are proposed. Design methods are given for carbon steel, aluminium and stainless steel and comparison against the FEM and EN results is made. The proposed methods are calibrated so that they give safe results compared to the considered FEM results.