Local buckling and hysteretic behavior of thin-walled Q690 high-strength steel H-section beam-columns.

• Tests and numerical analysis of specimens with large width-thickness ratios. • Elastic-plastic local buckling and its effects on hysteretic behaviour of beam-columns. • Design formula for bearing capacity of Q690 high strength beam-columns. To evaluate local buckling and its effect on the hysteretic performance of high-strength Q690 thin-walled H-section beam-columns, cyclic testing was carried out on four H-section columns composed of plates with a nominal yield strength of 690 MPa. Based on China's standard for the design of steel structures (GB 50010-2017), the four H-section columns are categorized as S4 and S5 sections, and the axial load ratio of the columns is 0.2 and 0.35. After the test, the failure mode, second-order effect of bending moment, hysteresis curve, bearing capacity, backbone curve, energy dissipation, ductility and stiffness degradation of the specimens were investigated. The failure mode of the specimens is elastic–plastic local buckling of the column bottom flange and web. The ductility coefficient of the specimens is 2.08–3.04, and they have certain specific deformation and energy dissipation capacities. Following this, a finite element model was established to simulate the hysteretic performance of the Q690 thin-walled H-section beam-columns. The failure mode and hysteresis curve obtained by the finite element simulation corresponded well with the tests. Based on this agreement, a parametric study was carried out to investigate the influence of the flange width-thickness ratio, web width-thickness ratio, and axial load ratio on the local buckling and hysteretic performance of H-section beam-columns. The variation trend of the backbone curve and the bearing capacity were further investigated by the finite element parametric analysis. Finally, a prediction formula for the beam-column bearing capacity was proposed based on the finite element results. The comparison with the test results shows that the proposed formula has sufficient accuracy and can be used in engineering design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]