EUROSTEEL 2014, September 10-12, 2014, Naples, Italy

CYCLIC AND MONOTONIC BEHAVIOR OF Q460 STEELS

Yan-Bo Wanga, Guo-Qiang Lib , Su-Wen Chenb, Wei Cuia
a.
College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China
2ybwang@tongji.edu.cn, jybcuiwei@163.com
b.
State Key Laboratory for Disaster Reduction in Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China
gqli@tongji.edu.cn, swchen@tongji.edu.cn

INTRODUCTION
Since recent advances of technology in material science and increasing demand for high strength
steel (HSS, yield stress 460 MPa), HSS has been increasingly used in high-rise buildings, large
span buildings and bridges in the past two decades. Compared with conventional mild carbon steel
members, the application of HSS members could not only reduce member size and save building
space, but also shows considerable economic benefits through reducing the workloads of
transportation and welding and shortening the time of construction. Previous researches [1-5] have
showed that, with minor modifications, the current steel structure design standards can be used for
the elastic design of HSS structures at non-seismic regions.

However, for seismic design, it is not economical to keep structures in elastic range under severe
earthquakes. Instead, it is expected that structures shall be able to endure rational reversal inelastic
deformations in order to dissipate earthquake energy. Therefore, the seismic performance of HSS
should be examined when it was related to the application of HSS in structural design for
earthquake-resistance. With the increase in yield strength, the yield to tensile strength ratio gets
close to 1.0 and the elongation ratio of HSS decreases. Ductility requirements specified in
Eurocode3 [6] and Eurocode8 [7] are in terms of the tensile to yield strength ratio (fu/fy1.10), the
elongation ratio (not less than 15%) and the ultimate strain (not less than 15 times of the yield
strain). According to Chinese Code for Seismic Design of Buildings GB 50011-2010 [8], the
ductility requirements of steel (fy/fu0.85, elongation ratio 20%) are more strict than those of
Eurocode3 due to the expectation of inelastic behavior of structural elements and connections under
rare earthquakes. For HSS, those important mechanical properties of seismic design can hardly
meet the requirements specified in GB 50011-2010 and Eurocode3. Currently, the application of
HSS in seismic design is restricted by existing seismic design codes and constructional practice,
which were established based on the study of conventional steel. Therefore, better understanding of
inelastic cyclic behavior of HSS is important for determining the suitability of HSS for seismic
structure applications. This paper is concerned with the uniaxial cyclic and monotonic behavior of
Q460C steel.

1 EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM

1.1 Test materials

Three kinds of Q460 steel were used in this test, which were 11 mm thick Q460C steel plate
produced by Nanjing Iron & Steel Co., Ltd, 21 mm thick 460C steel plate produced by Baoshan
Iron & Steel Co., Ltd, and hot-rolled Q460C I-shaped steel H496199914 produced by
Maanshan Iron & Steel Co., Ltd. The chemical compositions of the test materials are summarized in
Table 1. Those parameters can meet the requirements of the Chinese code High Strength Low Alloy
Structural Steels [9]. Tensile coupon tests were carried out to determine the stress-strain
characteristics of Q460 steels. The cutting direction was perpendicular to the rolling direction for
steel plate and parallel to the rolling direction for I-shaped steel. Fig. 1a shows the details of the
machined coupon specimens. Tensile coupon tests on 12 specimens were conducted in accordance
with the specifications of GB/T 228-2002 [10], and the average values of the tests are summarized
in Table 2. In the Table 2, E is the Youngs modulus, fy is the 0.2% proof stress, which is adopted as
the yield strength of steel plates, fu is the ultimate tensile stress, and A is the percentage of
elongation after fracture. Plate steel with the thickness of 11 mm showed the lowest ductility among
the tested Q460C steels. Nevertheless, the elongation ratio of 11 mm Q460 plate steel is higher than
the requirements specified in Eurocode8[7] and GB 50011-2010 [8] by 58% and 52%, respectively.
And the yield to tensile strength ratio of the test Q460C steel can satisfy the ductility requirements
of Eurocode8[7] and GB 50011-2010 [8]. Fig.1b shows the typical stress-strain curves of Q460C
plate steels obtained from test. It can be seen that the strain hardening of Q460C steel is not as
significant as normal strength steels. Moreover, for some Q460C coupons, there is even no well-
defined yield plateau.

Fig. 1. Typical stress-strain relationships

Table 1 Chemical composition of Q460C steel in percentage of weight

Specifications C Si Mn P S Nb V Cr Ni Cu Ceq
11 mm plate steel 0.07 0.24 1.62 0.011 0.002 0.05 0.048 0.04 0.02 0.05 0.35
21 mm plate steel 0.06 0.20 1.56 0.010 0.002 0.05 0.030 - 0.18 0.16 0.35
I-shaped steel 0.18 0.43 1.40 0.021 0.009 0.03 0.067 0.02 0.007 0.21 0.43

Table 2 Measured mechanical properties of Q460C steel

E fy fu fy / fu
A (%)
Specifications (GPa) (MPa) (MPa)
11 mm plate steel 207.8 505.8 597.5 0.85 23.7
21 mm plate steel 217.6 464.0 585.9 0.79 30.4
I-shaped steel 220.2 565.0 671.3 0.84 23.9

1.2 Cyclic test specimens

The cyclic loading specimens cut from Q460C steel plate with the thickness of 11 mm were named
as P11-1, P11-2, and with thickness of 21 mm were named as P21-1, P21-2. The specimens cut
from the flange of hot-rolled Q460C steel were named as H14-1, H14-2. The specimens were
machined into coupons with square cross-sections depend on differently initial thicknesses. Fig. 2
shows the details of the prepared specimens. To prevent compressive buckling under large strain,
the length of the uniform gage section part was selected as no more than two times of the depth and
thickness of the cross section. In purpose of comparing with normal strength steel, two Q345
specimens were machined with the dimensions according to Fig. 2c, named as O14-1 and O14-2.
 11

25

11
80 20 22 20 80
222
(a) 11mm steel plate
21

21
35
80 20 42 20 80
242
(b) 21mm steel plate
13.5

13.5
20 60 21 18 21 60
180
(c) 14 mm flange of hot-rolled I-shaped steel

Fig. 2. Details of cyclic loading specimens

1.3 Test setup and loading protocols

The specimens were tested under the tension-compression fatigue testing machine MTS793 with
load capacity of 500kN. The ends of specimens were fixed by hydraulic grips. To measure the
longitudinal deformation, an extensometer with a gauge length of 10 mm was attached on the
uniform segment. Cyclic uniaxial force was applied by strain-control method. On the one hand, the
loading rate of 0.1 mm/min was applied for the specimens P11-1, P11-2, P21-1and P21-2.
Accordingly, cyclic loading protocol I was adopted, as shown in Fig. 3a. The loading protocol I was
consisted of seven cyclic strain amplitudes from 0. 5% to 3.5% with repeating two cycles within
each strain amplitude. On the other hand, the loading rate of 0.1 Hz combined with the loading
protocol II was applied for the specimens H14-1, H14-2, O14-1 and O14-2. Fig. 3b shows the
cyclic loading history of protocol II. Three cycles were repeated at the first five cyclic strain
amplitudes and ten cycles were repeated at the last cyclic strain amplitude.

0.03
0.04 Specimens: P11-1, P11-2, P21-1and P21-2 Specimens: H14-1, H14-2, O14-1 and O14-2

0.03 0.02

0.02
0.01
Strain (mm/mm)

Strain (mm/mm)

0.01

0.00 0.00

-0.01

-0.01
-0.02

-0.02
-0.03

-0.04
-0.03
Time (s) Time (s)

(a) Loading protocol I (b) Loading protocol II

Fig. 3. Cyclic loading protocols

2 EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
2.1. Cyclic behavior
The typical stress-strain hysteretic curves of the tested specimens are summarized in Fig. 4. For
clarity, the initial loading cycle was hid in the figures. Fig. 4a and b show the stress-strain hysteretic
curves of Q460C plate steels. Fig. 4c shows the stress-strain hysteretic curves of hot-rolled Q460C
I-shaped steel. Fig. 4d shows the stress-strain hysteretic curves of hot-rolled Q345B I-shaped steel.
It can be observed that all HSS specimens achieved full hysteretic loops as well as the specimens of
normal strength steel Q345B. This indicates that Q460C steel has a good energy dissipation
capacity and preferable seismic performance. It can be seen from the hysteretic curves that the
maximum stresses for both tension and compression loadings increase with the increase in cyclic
strain amplitude, which is indentified as strain hardening. Meanwhile, it can be found that the
increase in the maximum stress of the prior tension/compression loading shows an expense of the
yield strength of the subsequent reverse loading, which is well known as the Bauschinger effect.

600 600

400 400

200 200

StressMPa
StressPa)

0 0

-200 -200

-400 -400

-600 -600

-800 -800
-0.04 -0.03 -0.02 -0.01 0.00 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 -0.04 -0.03 -0.02 -0.01 0.00 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04
Strain mm/mm) Strain(mm/mm)
(a) P11-1 (c) P21-1

600
600

400 400

200 200
StressMPa

Stress MPa

0
0
-200
-200
-400
-400
-600

-800 -600
-0.03 -0.02 -0.01 0.00 0.01 0.02 0.03 -0.03 -0.02 -0.01 0.00 0.01 0.02 0.03

Strain (mm/mm) Strain (mm/mm)

(e) H14-1 (g) O14-1

Fig. 4. Stress-strain hysteretic curves of tested specimens

2.2. Cyclic skeleton curves

The cyclic skeleton curves of the tested specimens were generated by connecting the peak points of
each first reversal during the applied various amplitudes, as shown in Fig. 5. The cyclic skeleton
curves are almost symmetric in tension and compression, in addition to a slightly higher for the
stress in compression. This difference is attributed to the geometric changes and can be eliminated
by using natural coordinate system [11]. To investigate the effect of yield to tensile strength ratio on
the cyclic behavior of HSS, the tested skeleton curves were normalized by yield strength and
compared with the previous researches [12, 13], as shown in Fig. 6. Table 3 summarizes the
mechanical properties of the steels in Fig. 6. Combined with Table 3, it can be observed from Fig. 6
that the decrease in yield to tensile strength ratio (fy/fu) of steel results in strengthening of the strain
hardening effect for the cyclic skeleton curves. The Q345B specimens O14-1 and H3-1(1) that have
 the lower fy/fu than the Q460 specimens achieved the more remarkable strain hardening under cyclic
loading. For the specimen H3-1(1) with fu/fy of 1.39, the maximum value of the strain hardening
ratio of the cyclic skeleton curve is 1.37 with the strain amplitude up to 4%. For the specimen P11-1
with fu/fy of 1.18, the maximum value of the strain hardening ratio of the cyclic skeleton curve is
1.13 at the strain amplitude of 2%. Besides, the yield point phenomena are observed in the cyclic
skeleton curves of Fig. 5 and 6.

800 1.4

600 1.2

Normalized stress
400 1.0
200
StressPa)

0.8
0 P11-1, Q460C 11mm plate steel
0.6
P21-1, Q460C 21mm plate steel
-200 H14-1 H3-1, Q460D 14mm plate steel [13]
0.4
P21-1 H3-1(1), Q345B 14mm plate steel [12]
-400 P11-1 O14-1, Q345 14mm hot-rolled I-section flange
O14-1 0.2 H14-1, Q460 14mm hot-rolled I-section flange
-600
0.0
-800 0.00 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04
-0.04 -0.03 -0.02 -0.01 0.00 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 Strain (mm/mm)
Strain mm/mm)

Fig. 5. Tested cyclic skeleton curves Fig. 6. Comparison of cyclic skeleton curves among different
steels

Table 3 Comparison of mechanical properties among different steels

Specimens Grade Type fy (MPa) fu (MPa) fy / fu A (%)
O14-1 Q345B I-shaped 385 535 0.72 27.5
H3-1(1) [12] Q345B Plate steel 429 589 0.73 24.0
P21-1 Q460C Plate steel 464 586 0.79 30.4
H3-1 [13] Q460D Plate steel 476 576 0.83 24.0
H14-1 Q460C I-shaped 565 671 0.84 23.9
P11-1 Q460C Plate steel 506 598 0.85 23.7

3 CONCLUSIONS
In this study, a series of HSS coupon specimens with yield strength of 460 MPa were tested under
monotonic and cyclic loading. The investigated coupons include those cut and machined from
Q460C plate steel and hot-rolled Q460C I-shaped steel. In addition, Q345B steel was tested under
cyclic loading for comparison. It was observed that all HSS specimens achieved full hysteretic
loops as well as the specimens of normal strength steel Q345B, indicating a good energy dissipation
capacity of HSS. Similar to normal strength steel, cyclic hardening and softening, and Bauschinger
effect were observed from the stress-strain hysteretic curves of Q460C specimens. Based on the
comparison of the cyclic skeleton curves among different steel grades, it can be concluded that an
increase in yield to tensile strength ratio (fy/fu) of HSS results a decreasing of strain hardening effect
for cyclic skeleton curve.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors wish to thank Li-Ming Xie for his help in conducting the experiments. This study was
supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (Grant No. 2012BAJ13B02) and the
Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (Grant No. 12231200400), which
are gratefully acknowledged.

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