Practical advanced analysis of space steel frames using fiber hinge method

This paper presents a new nonlinear fiber hinge beam–column element for modeling space steel frames. To simulate the inelastic action according to the concentrated inelastic approximation, it is supposed that the beam–column element is composed from two exterior fiber hinge segments and an interior elastic segment. The stability functions obtained from the exact stability solution of a beam–column subjected to axial force and end bending moments are used to represent the second-order effect. The obtained results are demonstrated to be accurate by comparing them with the exact solution, proposed equation for design, and those from ABAQUS and plastic-zone analyses. The proposed numerical procedure proves to be a reliable and effective tool for daily use in engineering design of large-scale steel space frames.