High temperature full-scale tests performed on S500M steel grade beams

In recent publications, the results of coupon tests performed on high-strength steel (mainly S460M and S460N) have been presented. Some of these tests led to ratios between the coupon resistances at elevated temperatures and at room temperature lower than the Eurocode reduction factors. The authors of these publications have consequently questioned the validity of these factors for these steel grades, without referring to any full-scale fire tests. Two experimental full-scale fire tests have been performed at the University of Liege in order to assess the mechanical resistance of S500 M steel grade at high temperatures. Two similar 4.4 m-long steel beams have been respectively subjected to fast (standard ISO curve) and slow (fixed 5 K/min heating rate) elevations of temperature under a constant mechanical loading. The tests have been successfully reproduced in subsequent finite element analyses using Eurocode 3 steel material law at elevated temperatures, in which a creep component is implicitly taken into account. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd