EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON DUCTILE CRACK INITIATION IN COMPACT SECTION STEEL COLUMNS

摘要

The present study aims at investigating the initiation mechanism of ductile cracks, which is the first step of brittle fracture, occurred in steel bridge piers with thick-walled sections, in order to develop a seismic evaluation procedure for steel structures considering the evaluation of ductile crack initiation. For this purpose, a total of nine steel columns with small width-thickness ratios were tested under cyclic loading. It is found that ductile cracks occurred at the column base in all the specimens regardless of cyclic loading histories subjected.