Stainless steel members under combined torsion and bending

In recent years, the use of stainless steel structural members in a variety of engineering applications has increased, owing to their attractive aesthetic appeal, high strength and durability. In contrast to carbon steel, stainless steel forms an anti-corrosion layer by itself and hence no expensive coatings are needed to prevent corrosion. Therefore, recent studies have shown that the life-cycle cost of stainless steel structures is comparable to carbon steel equivalents. However, the literature of the last decades shows that the design rules of stainless steel (historically based on carbon steel rules) are unduly conservative, leading to inappropriate use of the material characteristics, such as its high strength. In engineering structures, such as bridges, fabricated elements are often submitted to in-plane loading located away from the cross-section shear centre, leading to the development of torsion and shear stresses across the section. However, very little attention was paid to the design of members submitted to these forces, yet they occur quite often. During this research project, the behaviour of stainless steel cross-sections and members subjected to torsion and combined torsion plus bending will be studied, based on experimental and numerical evidence. The final objective of this research is to develop a design method and/or to give directions of improvement to recently developed ones.