Experimental investigation on ferritic stainless steel columns in fire

• Tests on columns made of ferritic stainless steel in fire.
• Comprehensive presentation of experimental data.
• Mode of failure highly dependent of temperature gradient in the furnace.

This paper presents the performance of EN 1.4003 ferritic stainless steel hollow section columns when exposed to fire loading. Experimental analysis of the behaviour of ferritic stainless steel structural members in fire represents a novelty. In detail, three column tests were carried out in the framework of the Research Fund of Coal and Steel (RFCS) project named Structural Applications of Ferritic Stainless Steels (SAFSS, RFSR-CT-2010-00026). Tubular thin-walled members were considered in this study because structural applications of ferritic stainless steels generally incorporate such profiles. Three columns were tested: two square hollow sections (SHS) and a rectangular hollow section (RHS) of different length. Fire loading was applied under a constant concentrically compressive load. Identical column tests at room temperature are also reported.