Seminar - Xi (David) Zhang - Advanced analysis methods for locally unstable steel structures

Thursday 3 June 2010, 4.00 pm - 5.00 pm
Civil Engineering Lecture Theatre 3

Xi (David) Zhang
School of Civil Engineering
University of Sydney

Abstract:
Australia has secured a leading international position in the production of light gauge steels and steel framed solutions over the last 30 years. With the rapid progress of technology gained by steel companies, high strength and light gauge cold-formed steel structures are becoming more widely used, leading to products with higher strength and smaller thickness. A need has emerged for developing guidelines for the design of thin-walled steel structures by analyses which consider the effect of cross-sectional instability. The aim of the project is to develop such guidelines, catering for cold-formed steel sections, by using advanced analysis. A new methodology which considers the reduced rigidities as a function of applied actions will be incorporate into beam-element-based large displacement analyses to account for local buckling effects. Full scale portal frame tests will be conducted to verify the simulation results. A probability-based design guideline will be derived to verify current national standards for cold-formed steel structures.

The main content of this talk is to discuss the aim and methodology that will be used for this project, a brief literature review on related areas as well as previous work which has been done are also included.