Undergraduate Research Experience (REU), NHERI 2019: Effects of Modern Residual Stress Patterns on Inelastic Buckling of Hot-rolled Steel Sections

Residual stresses, or stresses induced during the manufacturing process, are known to affect the strength of steel members. Due to advancements in technology and accessibility of resources, straightening techniques of steel members have improved to increase efficiency. These straightening techniques have been found to alter typical residual stress patterns. Research was conducted at the University of California San Diego to obtain residual stress patterns within modern steel members with the
objective to suggest that the equations E3-2 and E3-3 provided by AISC Steel Construction Manual may be altered to maximize efficiency.Experimental measurements were taken by adapting a hole-drilling technique to measure strains within multiple I-shape steel members. The strains were used to derive the residual stresses within the members. Residual stress patterns were also applied to 3-dimensional models using the non-linear finite element software ABAQUS to predict the ultimate buckling capacity of members.