Experimental study on the general behaviour of stainless steel frames

In recent years, a considerable amount of research has been devoted to the under-standing of the structural performance of single isolated stainless steel members. Not withstanding, advances related to the analysis of more complex stainless steel structures, such as frames, are scarce. On this basis, a comprehensive experimental programme on sway and non-sway austenitic stainless steel frames with slender and stocky rectangular hollow sections subjected to static loading was carried out at Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya. The paper presents the preliminary experimental results on one non-sway and one sway frame as illustrative of the experimental programme. A more in deep analysis of these frames will contribute to the appraisal of existing design rules for stainless steel, which are based on carbon steel, in terms of predicted ultimate capacities, plastic design and second order effects, considering the particular non-linear behavior and strain hardening for stainless steels.