Cyclic Behavior of Wide-Flange Steel Columns with Reduced Sections

This article presents a numerical study on the cyclic behavior of European wide-flange steel columns with and without reduced-section bases. A set of finite element simulations were carried out to investigate the flexural resistance, plastic rotation capacity, and the axial shortening of a representative range of European H columns, varying the imposed axial load from 0 to 0.45 the axial plastic resistance of the prismatic section. The results indicate that introducing reduced sections improved plastic rotation capacity for low axial force levels (i.e., up to 0.15 the axial plastic resistance of the gross section) but diminished it for high values. Also, the increase in flexural resistance due to cyclic hardening is more pronounced in the columns with reduced sections due to the high strain localization into the reduced zone. For all specimens, axial shortening is more significant in columns with reduced sections and higher web slenderness.