Robustness of steel joints with stainless steel bolts in fire

The robustness of steel joints in fire is important for steel building structures because of the need to prevent progressive collapse. Stainless steel is widely used in building construction mainly because of its corrosion resistance, but it also possesses improved fire resistance compared with conventional non-alloy, fine grain structural steels. Extensive research performed on the robustness of steel joints in fire has revealed that failure at elevated temperature may be controlled by bolt shear for fin plate and web cleat connections. Hence, this study focussed on the use of stainless steel in experimental tests conducted on fin plate and web cleat connections at high temperatures. In addition, this study investigated the use of a component-based model to predict connection performance at elevated temperature.