Structural stainless steel design: a new approach

Current stainless steel structural design guidance is based largely on assumed analogies with carbon steel; the result is that the particular material properties that stainless steel exhibits are not being fully utilised. This paper describes a new approach to stainless steel structural design that adopts a more accurate material model and a continuous system of section classification and member design. The new method requires no iteration, involves a similar volume of calculations to current methods, and offers improvements in design efficiency of over 20%.

The method has been validated against all available test results and has been subjected to a statistical analysis in line with the Eurocode requirements. Worked examples have been included to illustrate the method.

L. Gardner, BEng, MSc, PhD, DIC, CEng, MICE
Imperial College London

D. A. Nethercot, PhD, DSc, FCGI, FREng, FICE, FIStructE
Imperial College London