Analytical Prediction and Finite Element Simulation of Steel Tubular Pier with Stiffener

Hollow steel tubular members are extensively used in multi storey car parks, bridge piers, building columns, offshore structures and subway columns. An earthquake of moderate intensity can result in extensive damage and potential collapse of bridges. During a large earthquake, traditional seismic lateral resisting system can experience significant damage and it cause residual drifts. Thus, a suitable strengthening or retrofitting technique needs to be developed for minimising structural damage and human casualty due to imposed lateral impact loading. The steel shell acts as longitudinal and transverse reinforcement. The primary role of stiffeners is to prevent local buckling prior to overall buckling and to increase overall buckling strength. In seismic applications, an additional, yet equally important role of stiffeners is to increase ductility of the cross section under cyclic loading. Stiffeners are the secondary plate or sections which are attached to web or flanges to stiffen them against out of plane deformation. This paper presents the research work on analytical prediction and finite element simulation of steel tubular pier with stiffeners. A non-liner 3D model was developed using ANSYS programme.