Numerical assessment of stainless steel tubular T‐joints subjected to brace and chord axial forces

The utilisation of tubular sections in steel structures has increased significantly worldwide. The use of stainless steel provides several benefits for structures, including high corrosion resistance, durability, fire resistance and ease of maintenance. A significant issue in the design of tubular structures is the joints failure since they are highly susceptible to local failures that influence their actual overall behavior. The design rules of welded carbon steel tubular joints are available, such as Eurocode 3, part 1‐8, NBR 16239, ISO 14346 and CIDECT guides. When stainless steel tubular joints are considered, the AS/NZS 4673 Australian/New Zealand Standard is the only available specification that can be used. An experimental and numerical analysis of these tubular joints are recommended since they enable a more accurate evaluation of their structural performance. Concerning these aspects, this work aims to investigate stainless steel tubular T‐joints fabricated by SHS and RHS cold‐formed profiles that focused on the effect of chord pre‐loading. For this purpose, a numerical study based on finite element analysis was performed. The finite element model was developed and calibrated against experiments. The results were subsequently compared with the aforementioned design predictions.