Preliminary study and tests arrangements for experimental programme on stainless steel frames

In recent years, a considerable amount of research has been devoted to the understanding of the structural performance of single isolated stainless steel members. Notwithstanding, advances related to the analysis of more complex stainless steel structures, such as frames, are scarce. On this basis, a comprehensive experimental program on sway and non-sway austenitic stainless steel frames with slender and stocky rectangular hollow sections is being carried out at the laboratory of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering “Luis Agullo” of the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya. The objective of this paper is to present the preliminary study conducted for the definition of the general experimental setup in order to reproduce realistic loading configurations and ensure the acquisition of all the relevant measurements for the correct analysis of the behaviour of stainless steel frames. The paper specially focuses on the definition of the vertical and horizontal loading protocol, the setup of the loading and restraining system and the design and validation of the “bespoke” load cells.