Fire behaviour of stainless steel circular hollow section stub columns: Experimental study and design

Circular hollow sections (CHS) are common in structural engineering owing to their excellent aesthetic appearance and structural behaviour. However, there is no existing experimental study into the cross-sectional behaviour of stainless steel CHS in fire. To fill this gap, an experimental study performed on austenitic stainless steel CHS in fire is presented in this paper. A total of eight CHS stub columns were examined at different temperatures, spanning from 20 °C to 800 °C. The material properties, geometric characteristics and local geometric imperfections of the tested CHS stub columns were also obtained simultaneously. Finally, the accuracy of EN 1993-1-2 design rules and a recent design method proposed by Quan et al. was assessed based on the obtained test data. It is shown that, compared to the design rules of EN 1993-1-2, the ultimate cross-sectional resistances predicted by the design method of Quan et al. can achieve higher accuracy and reliability for stainless steel CHS in fire. •An experimental study into fire behaviour of stainless steel CHS was conducted.•Eight CHS stub columns were tested at temperatures ranging from 20 °C to 800 °C.•EN 1993-1-2 design rules and a recent design method of Quan et al. were assessed.