Critical Load Analysis of Double-Hinged Circular Steel Arch In-Plane under High Temperature of Fire

Abstract

This paper addresses the stability behaviour in-plane and the critical load of the double-hinged circular steel arch when subjected to elevated temperature caused by fire, the study is restricted to the thermoelastic structural response of the steel material and therefore the high-temperature effects of yielding are not considered. In order to model structural response of the steel arch under thermal loading, some significant factors such as the degradation of the stiffness of the steel arch prior to yielding at elevated temperatures is taken into account, the formulation of critical load is proposed and their variation trends with temperatures is analysed. The proposed method has significant potential for use in the analysis of steel arches subjected to uniformly distributed load at elevated temperature and can provide a foundation for codified procedures in design.