Vol. 21, No. 1, pp. 42-53 (2025)
SECOND-ORDER INELASTIC ANALYSIS OF STEEL FRAME STRUCTURES
USING IMPROVED FIBER PLASTIC HINGE METHOD
Fan Xu 1, 2, Yi-Qun Tang 1, 2, *, Xiao-Meng Ding 1, 2, De-Hong Huang 3, 4 and Yao-Peng Liu 3, 4
1 School of Civil Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, China;
2 Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Mechanical Analysis for Infrastructure and Advanced Equipment, Nanjing, China
3 School of Civil Engineering and Transportation, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, China;
4 State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Building and Urban Science, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, China
*(Corresponding author: E-mail:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
Received: 10 September 2024; Revised: 10 September 2024; Accepted: 9 October 2024
DOI:10.18057/IJASC.2025.21.1.4
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ABSTRACT
In the realm of inelastic analysis for steel structures, the plastic hinge method is recognized for its computational efficiency but is often criticized for its lower accuracy than the plastic zone method. The present study aims to improve the accuracy of the plastic hinge method by discretizing the cross-section of the plastic hinges located at the element ends. Besides, the proposed fiber plastic hinge method is more efficient than the plastic zone method where each cross-section at the integration points of the element should be discretized. This study utilizes the improved fiber plastic hinge method to compute the initial and full yield surfaces of the cross-section, determine the section spring stiffness, and integrate this method into the second-order inelastic analysis of steel frame structures. Several classic benchmark problems are solved by the present method and the obtained results are compared with results generated by the plastic zone method as implemented in finite element software. The comparison reveals that the proposed fiber plastic hinge method matches the plastic zone method in terms of high accuracy for predicting the inelastic behavior of steel structures, with the added advantage of greater efficiency.
KEYWORDS
Steel structures, Second-order inelastic analysis, Fiber plastic hinge, Beam-column element, Transverse shear deformation
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