EngineeringStructures,Vol. 18, No. 10, pp.

786-791, 1996
Copyright © 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd
Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved
S0141-0296(96)00008-9 0141~)296/96 $15.00 + 0.00
ELSEVIER

New constructional steels and

structural stability
Yuhshi Fukumoto
Department of Civil Engineering, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan

High strength, high fracture toughness, longer fatigue life, high cor-
rosion resistance and better weldability are the users' demands for
new constructional steels. In this paper, the mechanical properties
of newly developed steels are reviewed and the ultimate plate
strength and ductility in compression with different models of
material properties are presented. Copyright © 1996 Elsevier
Science Ltd.

Keywords: new steels, high strength steel, low yield ratio, ultimate
compressive strength, plate elements

1. Introduction SM490 and A242 steel grades t. It is observed that approxi-

mately 40 N/mm 2 higher yield stress is obtained by the
Recent advances of technology in materials science have TMCP method than by the normalizing process. Reduction
made it easy to respond to user's needs on high perform-
in the Ceq value improves the welded joint toughness and
ance steels in naval, offshore, civil and building structures. reduces the preheating temperature and heat affected zone
Under a severe natural environment, thicker steel plates of hardness. TMCP high strength steel can be applied to
50-100 mm are required for large scale structures to have increase efficiency in welding fabrication.
high strength, high fracture toughness, longer fatigue life, In buildings and bridges, the user's needs in mechanical
high corrosion resistance and better weldability. Such properties of constructional steels may be summarized as
properties and high productivity are made partly possible
follows.
by introducing a new thermo-mechanical control process
(TMCP) with a controlled rolling and accelerated cooling (1) High strength steel with low yield-to-tensile strength
process instead of the conventional normalizing process. ratio (LYR) to assure the inelastic deformation
TMCP is also known as the thermo-mechanical controlled capacity of structures under earthquake motion.
rolling (TMCR) process or the controlled-rolling (CR) pro- (2) Narrow variation of yield stress which assures the
cess. design calculated sequence of plastic hinge formation
Figure 1 shows the improvement of weldability of in the structures, holding a constant yield stress level
TMCP in relation to the carbon equivalent Ceq values of from medium to thick plates.
(3) A low-yield steel which exhibits a yield stress less than
600 - - Plate thickness : 5 0 - 1 0 0 mm conventional mild steel (SM400, A36). The low-yield
stress with high ductility behaves like a 'fuse' which
550 -- ~ ~ ~ ~ _ Normalized
~ can dissipate seismic energy while the rest of the struc-
ture remains elastic or undamged.
500 (4) A high Young's modulus steel which has a higher than
TS normal value, produced experimentally by applying a
E 450
cold-rolling process in manufacturing. High Young's
TMCP~]~ Normaliz¢d
Z modulus provides great benefits in the structural func-
~ 400
tions.
~ 350
2. High strength steel with low yield-to-tensile
strength ratio (LYR HS steel)
250[- I I I I I I I I Stress-strain curves which are constructed from the tensile
0.30 0.32 0.34 0.36 0.38 0.40 0.42 0.44 0.46 coupon tests, are schematically shown in Figure 2 from
mild steel to quenched and tempered high strength steel.
Ceq=C+Mn/6+(Cr+Mo+V)/5+(Ni+Cu)/15 (%)
The steel grade of SM400A is equivalent to ASTM A36,
Figure I TMCPsteeland improvedcarbonequivalentCeq SM490A to A441, SM570 to A572, and HT780 to A517.

786
New constructional s t e e l s and structural stability: Y. Fukumoto 787

Fu. Fy is defined by the 0.2% offset yield stress for high

800 .~ HS780 strength steels.
/ sM.o \ From equation (3), Eta is governed by Fy/1.7 when the
yield ratio is limited by YR <--_0.77 (= 1.7/2.2), that is,
¢~ SM490 Fu --> Fy/0.77. The dotted line in Figure 3 represents equ-
ation (4) which connects (Fy, F , ) = (235, 400) for mild
40O steel and (685 and 885) for new LYR HS steel. This
straight line is given by equation (4).
2O0
Fy= 0.928Fu- 137.8 (MPa) (4)

I I or the value of low yield ratio as,

0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Strain (%) LYR = {1.08 + ( 148.5/Fy)}-1 (5)
Figure 2 Stress-strain curves of different steel grades Figure 4 shows Fy-YR the curves of equations (2) and
(5) and the plotted points indicate the values of Fy and
It is apparent for any class of steel that if the strength YR using the minimum yield and tensile strength; both are
increases, then the yield-to-tensile strength ratio (YR) also specified in the indicated material standards. Target values
increases and the elongation decreases. YRs for the above of the LYR high strength steels in steel manufacturing are
four steel grades are 0.65, 0.74, 0.86 and 0.91, respectively, plotted for comparison with equation (5). Equation (5) can
from the tensile coupon tests. A stress-strain curve of low- serve as a target line for the future development of the
yield stress steel is also given for comparison. new steels.
Figure 3 shows the plotted yield stress Fy and tensile The uniform strain at the tensile strength F~ is determ-
strength F~ from the results of 1612 tensile coupon tests. ined by the following equation considering the strain hard-
The regression analysis gives the least-squares line, equ- ening effect3:
ation (1), with the correlation coefficient R = 0.963 as
shown in Figure 32. YR = Fy/F~ = exp [--e n (lneo + 4.3)] (6)

Fy = 1.205F, - 245,6 (MPa)
or YR is given by
YR = Fy/F. = {0.83 + (203.8/Fy)}-1
The Honshu-Shikoku Bridge Authority (HSBA) specifies
the allowable tensile stress for high strength steels consider-
ing Fy and the values of YR. For quenched and tempered
high strength steel HT780 (Fy > 685 MPa, F, > 780 MPa
for t = 8-75 mm) steel, the allowable tensile stress Fta is
given by the smaller value in equation (3).
Eta = Min (Fy/1.7, F J2.2)
where the material safe~:y factor is 1.7 for Fy and 2.2 for
800
Fy=l.205 Fu-245.6 ,,.,~,./
(1) where the true strain en is expressed by the uniform strain
Eu as,
en = In (1 + Eu) (7)
(2)
Equating either equation (2) or (5) with equation (6), eu-
Fy relations can be obtained for the conventional steels and
for the LYR HS steels. The HSBH specification simply
defines the linear relation of E,-YR relationship as
Eu = 0.60 (1 - YR) (8)
Figure 5 shows the e. - Fy relationship for the conventional
(3) and LYR HS steels with the tensile coupon test results for
various steel grades. The dotted curve shows the e u - F y
relationship using equation (8) in place of equation (6).
In Figure 5, test points C) of the conventional steels are
well distributed along the e u - F y curve showing the uni-
. .~!// N=1612
form strain eu decrease with the increase of Fy. Test points
., ~-!~:."
• of low yield ratio steels which were conducted at Osaka
// University are small in number and more test results would

~" 640 . . ~ / //
Conventional steel
¢'~ "f !.0 - • LYR YR=lI(0.83+203.8/Fy)
LYR, t=100 mm / . /
0.9
>~ 480
t~ ~.~.]~v
.~..~...,:./,- Fy=0.928
- Fu-137.8
0 OEC _ ~ Ve
. .- , :,"(, . "~ 0.8 - ,, ASTM ,,
" >:: :" -
DIN ~ q,.~-"O""-.
0.7 V NF 'N.
0 6 ~
~ Low YR steel
0.6 - - j~cI D LYR=II(LOS+I48.51Fy)
f n - ~n
160 ~ "
~'''f i , i i i 0.5 I I t I I
., 2~10 400 560 720 880 1O0 300 500 700 900
Fu (MPa) Fy (MPa)
Figure 3 Plotted Fv-f ~ relations from 1612 tensile coupon tests Figure 4 Yield stress and yield ratio relations
788 N e w c o n s t r u c t i o n a l steels a n d s t r u c t u r a l s t a b i l i t y : Y. F u k u m o t o

/ Table2 Specified minimum and m a x i m u m Fv and Fo in JIS

0.3 ~- o Conventional steels
• L o w YR HS steels
t(mm) 6-12 12-40 40-100

=. t X •
SNB
400B
Fy min/Fy max(MPa)
Fu min/Fu max(MPa)
235over 235/355 215/355
400/510
0.2 --O ~ 3 0
~ ' ~ • LYR steel yield ratio (%) 80% less
SN 490B Fy min/Fy max(MPa) 325over 325/445 295/415
Fo min/F u max(MPa) 490/610
yield ratio (%) 80% less
0.1 -- ~Conventional steel

....... /o o
H S B A steel ~" 550 --
oO
0 I I I I I [ UmucZ
300 400 500 600 700 800
500
Yield stress Fy (MPa) I D a u SN490B upper bound
Figure 5 Yield stress and uniform strain relations
a~
450 B* /
i a
be needed in the high strength Fy = 650 MPa class steel.
The present e u - Fy relation will serve as a target curve in
order to produce more reliable low YR high strength steels.
v

9 400 U[i. 1 °
:n:n41n.
DElia
3. Narrow yield stress range steels ~., 350

There exist sufficient options in chemical compositions and

processing methods to allow steel producers to meet the 300
_/L
material requirements in the specifications. SN490B lower bound
The yield stress variation depends largely on chemical
compositions and on the rolling conditions, and the vari- 2s0 I I I t I / / I
o 10 zo 30 40 5o Ioo
ation can be controlled in order to meet the required quality
control of the product. In the material specifications, only Plate thickness (mm)
the guaranteed minimum values are specified in the yield Figure 6 Plate thickness and yield stress relations
stress and their actual yield stresses are usually much higher
than the specified values and thus the material ductility may
be reduced. On the other hand, since the tensile strengths and 40 mm of conventional steel. New standards can con-
have their lower and upper bounds in the specifications, the trol high yield stresses for medium plate thickness.
variation of the tensile strength becomes less compared to The narrow yield stress range steels of SN 400 and SN
the yield stress. The coefficients of variation (COV) of Fy 490 grades for a plate thickness of 16-30 mm are manufac-
and Fu can be listed from the published statistical data tured under carefully controlled rolling conditions. Statisti-
including the effects of plate thickness and steel grades cal data are obtained from the mill yield tests (Table 3).
(see Table 1). The COV values of the new narrow yield stress range
JIS (Japanese Industrial Standards) has been preparing a steels are less than half of the conventional steels. The
new material standard for building structural use to specify characteristic yield stress Fyk, that is defined by 5% prob-
the maximum and minimum bounds of the yield stress vari- ability less than Fy~, can be increased by 14% for the nar-
ation and the recent draft specifies the following guaranteed row range steel of C O V = 0.0407 compared to the conven-
values for two steel grades SN 400B and SN 490B. The tional steel of C O V = 0.110.
range between the maximum and the minimum bounds Eurocodes No. 8 Structural Design in Seismic Zones
maintains a constant value of 120MPa from t = 12 to states that for dissipative parts of earthquake resistant struc-
40 mm of the two steel grades as shown in Table 2. tures not only the lower value but also the upper value of
The maximum and minimum yield stress levels shown the yield strength shall be specified when the material is
by the solid lines are given in Figure 6 and are compared ordered and sufficient control must be taken to avoid over-
with the test results 1 of the conventional similar strength strengths 6.
grade steel. The dotted line is for 315 MPa between t = 16

Table I Coefficients of variation of Fy and Fu Table 3 Measured COV of mill yield stress of SN 400 and SN
490 steels
COY
No. of Standard
F~ Fu specimens Mean deviation COV

Galambos" 0.10-0.11 SN 400

Itoh 2 0.110-0.116 0.060-0.063 class 310 286.6 11.67 0.0407
AIJ LSD S 0.090-0.103 0.037-0.041 SN 490
Narrow range steel 0.0407, 0.0408 class 109 371.2 17.78 0.0478
N e w constructional steels and structural stability: Y. Fukumoto 789

(b)
700 1.4 B A-2
A-3
6OO 1.2
A-2
A-3 1.0
5OO
eL
FIFy=B(~/~y)n
4OO B-I A-2 A-3 0.8
Fy (MPa) 596 423 450 B n
3OO 0.6
YR 0.88 0.70 0.77 B-I 0.891 0.076
200 0.4
%t(%) 1.40 0.48 1.00 A-2 0.894 0.133
100 eu(%) 8.9 12.0 13.4 0.2 A-3 0.808 0.132
_ I I I I I I
0 5 15 25 l0 20 30
Strain (%) (~l~y)

Figure 7 Measured stress-strain curves and idealized models

4. U l t i m a t e plate strength o f L Y R H S steel Table4 Maximum plate slenderness and related mechanical
properties of steel
4.1 Plates in compression A-2 A-3 B-1
In elasto-plastic finite displacement plate analysis, the dif-
ferent material stress-strain curves obtained from the ten- ~p)max 0.66 0.55 0.51
sile tests and the idealized models, as shown in Figure 7, (130%) (108%) (100%)
are used to compare the ultimate strength and ductility of Est(% ) 0.48 1.80 1.40
the plates 7. These curves represent B-1 as a conventional YR 0.70 0.77 0.88
HS steel, and A-2 and A-3 as LYR HS steels with different
yield plateaux and yield ratios. After the onset of strain
hardening, the fitted fonnula is used for the strain-harden-
HS steel. In Figure 8, the mean ultimate compressive
ing range until the uniform strain eu is reached.
strength curve is obtained analytically using the measured
In the analysis, the same magnitude of welded type
initial imperfection data.
residual stress pattern and of initial deflection of plate are
adopted for the simply supported square plate.
4.2. 1-section in bending
Figure 8 shows an example of the analytical results of
the plate strength for different material properties. Post- The coupled strength of flange and web plates of 1-section
yielding strength is due ~:o the strain hardening effects. The in bending are analysed by the elasto-plastic finite displace-
maximum plate slenderness for Ap)maxfor the yield strength ment theory 7. A stub beam is analysed to prevent the
Ny are influenced by the strains at the initial strain harden- coupled effect with the overall instability of the beam.
ing Est and by the yield ratio as listed in Table 4. In the In order to compare the analytical results, the same mag-
abscissa, Ap is defined by, nitude of welded residual stress pattern and of initial distor-
tionat shape of the cross-sections are specified for B-l, A-
2 and A-3. Plate slenderness ~pf and Apw of the flange and
Ap = ~ y / F c r = 0.526 (b/t),v~Fy/E (9)
web are defined, respectively, as,

where b/t is the width-to-thickness of the plate.

~pf =\/Fy/Fcr)f = 1.61 (b/tf)~yy/E (10)
The maximum b/t ratio limitation can be relaxed by 30%
in low YR HS steel A-2 compared with the conventional ~pw = ~F~"y/Fcr,w -- 0.0463 (htltw)~ylE (11)

1.5 -- where Fcr)f and Fcr)w are elastic plate buckling stresses of
the flange in compression (the buckling coefficient
A
A kf= 0.425) and web in bending (kw = 23.9), respectively,
A Zx
^~-... Euler's curve and b the outstand flange width. Mu/My-Ttpw and Mu/Mv-
l.O Apw relations are determined for the specified flange plate
slendernesses Apr,tw = 10 mm and Af/Aw = 1.5.
0 B-I
z LX A - 2
Figure 9 shows an analytical result of the ultimate bend-
ing strength for the material properties B-1 and A-2. As
0.5 _ O A-3
compared with the conventional B-1 steel, A-2 steel dem-
Nu/l'qy=(O.7/kp)0"865 (Xp-~0.7)
onstrates high bending capacity for the specified flange and
web Ao values. The maximum width-to-thickness ratios of
0 I 1 I
cross-section which deliver the plastic moment Mp are
0 0.5 l.O 1.5 determined from the intersecting points of the strength
curves and Mu/Mp = 1 as shown in Figure 9. Combinations
of the maximum width-to-thickness ratios of the flange and
Figure 8 Analytical results of plate compressive strength for web plates for My and Mp are listed in Table 5.
different material models The maximum plate slendernesses in the yield cross-sec-
790 N e w constructional steels and structural stability: Y. Fukumoto

1.5
B-I 0 _kpf.=1.0 1.5 r (a)
• ~p:.s / A-2
\ • _~p:.6
1.0 / B - L ~

~? 1.0
0.5

o _~:.8
13 _kp~--0.6 ~pc--o.4 ~p,,~.6
A o I(XXXXY//X//q I I
Xpf=0.4 [ I I 0 5 10 15
0.5
0 0.5 1.0 1.5 O/ep
hpw B-I VS. A-2, hpf=0.4, -kpw=0.6
Figure9 Analytical results of maximum strength of I-section
in bending
1.5 F (b) A-2
Table 5 Combination of maximum width-to-thicknes ratios of
flange and web plates for M v and Mp sections

Mp section My section
~pw how

Apf A-2 A-3 B-1 A-2 A-3 B-1 o.5 ~ ~p~--o.4 ~pw~.6

1.0 0.441 0.318 0.315 0.682 0.701 0.720 o~ / / / f / / J I I

0.8 0.547 0.386 0.395 0.850 0.871 0.914 0 5 I0 15
0.6 0.665 0.540 0.540 1.175 1.133 1.138 e/oP
0.4 -- 0.591 0.587 -- -- -- A - 2 VS. A-3,kpf=0.4,'Xpw=0.6

1.5
tion for the three steels are apparently the same ones. How- (c)
ever, for the plastic cross-section, A-3 and B-1 give similar
slenderness values compared with A-2 which has low yield- B-I A-2
1.0
to-tensile strength ratio and a short yield plateau.

4.3. Ductility of 1-beam in bending

The energy dissipation index Umax can be defined by the
area under a M-O curve up to Mmax showing a shaded area
in Figure 10 where M is the end moment and 0 is the end
slope of the stub beam. Figure lOa, b and c shows the Umax
area for various combinations of the plate slenderness ,~pf
and ~vw values. Figure lOa and b shows M-O curves of A-
2, A-3 and B-1 for ~pf = 0.4 and ~pw = 0.6 giving the full
plastic moment. The energy dissipation ratio of U,~,x for B-
1, A-2 and A-3 is 1 : 2 . 9 4 : 1 . 0 3 . For ~p~--0.4 and
~pw = 1.0, the cross-sections of B- 1 and A-3 are terminated
by the coupled plate instability before reaching Mp. The
Umax ratio for B-I, A-2 and A-3 is 1 : 5.81 : 1.02. In both
cases, M/Mp--O/Op curves and thus the Umax values are
similar for B-1 and A-3 sections. The A-2 plastic section
possesses a large energy dissipation of approximately 3
times that of B- 1 for ~pf = 0.4 and ,~pw= 0.6 and of approxi-
mately 6 times for ~pf = 0.4 and Apw = 1.0.
The advantages of A-2 can be obtained using the con-
ditions that the steel has low yield ratio and short yield
plateau before strain hardening sets in.
4.4. Stiffened plates
Nara 8'9 discussed the ultimate compressive strength and
ductility of longitudinally stiffened plates with different
mechanical properties of steel including low YR HS steels.
The numerical analyses are made for a constant value of
Fy = 450 MPa with the yield ratios of 0.60, 0.65, 0.70, 0.75
and 0.79 and eu = 10% and 20%. The ductility capacity and
0.5
kpf=0.4 "~pw=l.0
0 I I
10 15
0/6p
B-I VS. A-2, ~pf=0.4, kpw=1.0
Figure 10 Strength of I-beam in bending
thus the energy dissipation index Umax can be increased
considerably by lowering the yield-to-tensile strength ratio
and the small value of Apf = 0.3 for the sub-panel plate
when the stocky stiffeners are provided. The effects of the
stiffener parameters in flexural, torsional and extensional
rigidities on the ultimate strength and ductility of the stiff-
ened plates are discussed.
4.5. Framed structures
Kuwamura '°-~3 demonstrated the advantages of low YR HS
steels in the application of earthquake resistant building
structures. The results show that the low YR HS steels exhi-
bit a larger energy dissipative capacity in the buildings
where plastic deformation is required as a source of energy
dissipation. Kuwamura '°:~.'4, discussed the yield stress
variation as a predominant influence on the plastic failure
mechanism of the earthquake resistant multistorey struc-
tures. Sequences and locations of the plastic hinge forma-
New constructional steels and structural stability: Y. Fukumoto
tions until failure may be changed from the weak-beam
strong-column structures, due to the much higher variation
of the maximum yield stresses, and thus cause an unexpec-
ted performance of the structures.
5. Conclusions
Modern innovative technologies in steelmaking have been
adding high performance quantities to conventional steels.
The thermo-mechanica] control process method is one of
the technologies which produces easily weldable steels with
good fracture toughness properties and high strengths for a
plate thickness up to 100 mm.
The behaviour of plate elements in compression and I-
sections in bending is discussed to stress the effects of the
different stress-strain curves of HS steels. Target values
of the mechanical properties of HS steel with low YR are
established in relation to yield stress-YR-uniform elong-
ation.
A material guide to produce mechanical properties of
high performance steels is proposed. HS steels with low
Y R can exhibit higher ultimate strength and larger ductility
in the plated structures compared with HS steels with high
YR. Further studies are needed on the relations of the plate
slenderness parameters, YR and the length of yield plateau
for the plated sections.
The COV values of the narrow yield stress range steel
are less than half of the conventional steel. Characteristic
values of the yield stress can be increased for the new steel
depending on the values of the chosen probability.
Further discussions are needed from the user's side to
propose the optimum raechanical properties which would
provide the desired high performance behaviour in steel
structures. Advanced metallurgical technologies can
respond to these requirements.
791
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