Journal of Constructional Steel Research 177 (2021) 106455

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Constructional Steel Research

Effect of fire exposure on residual stresses relief in welded high strength

Q690 steel sections
Ziyue Yang a, Weiyong Wang a,b,⁎, Juan Zhang a, Lei Xu a,c
a
School of Civil Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400045, China
b
Key Laboratory of New Technology for Construction of Cities in Mountain Area (Ministry of Education), Chongqing University, Chongqing 400045, China
c
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Welding induced residual stresses in steel sections can be reduced by high temperatures in fire conditions and
Received 10 September 2020 thus affect the load bearing capacity and stiffness of structural steel members. This paper presents effect of
Received in revised form 10 November 2020 high temperature exposure on residual stresses relief in welded high-strength Q690 steel sections by experimen-
Accepted 12 November 2020
tal and numerical studies. The distribution and magnitude of the residual stresses in three Q690 steel H-sections
Available online 28 November 2020
and three Q690 steel box-sections after exposure to 600 °C and 800 °C were investigated by cutting method. In
Keywords:
the numerical studies, finite element analysis software ANSYS was employed to simulate residual stress genera-
Residual stress tion and relief in the entire welding and high temperature exposure stages, including the heating and cooling
High strength Q690 steel phases. The predicted results of the residual stresses after an exposure to high temperature obtained by the finite
Welded steel section element analysis agree well with the test results. Parametric studies were conducted to investigate the influence
High temperature exposure of exposed temperature, high temperature duration, and creep strain in steel on residual stresses after being ex-
Finite element analysis posed to high temperature. For welded Q690 steel H- sections and box-sections, equations to evaluate the corre-
Parametric study sponding residual stress reduction factor at elevated temperatures and after high temperature exposure were
proposed based on the results of finite element analysis.
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
High-strength steel has been gradually developed and utilized in
many constructions in recent years, particularly on long-span bridges
and high-rise buildings. Compared with conventional mild steel, high-
strength steel has advantages of reducing the weight of the structure,
saving material consumptions, and improving the seismic performance
of structures. High-strength Q690 steel is a typical high strength steel
developed in China with a nominal yield strength of 690 MPa. In the
process of structural steel fabrication, especially in the welding process,
the high temperature induced by welding process can result in localized
inelastic deformation of steel. The non-uniform cooling process can fur-
ther intensify the internal stress induced in the heating and cooling pro-
cesses. Eventually, in the vicinity of the heating zone, significant residual
stress is generated in the form of initial self-equilibrium across the
whole section. The presence of welding induced residual stress in a
steel member can result in the elastic-plastic deformation prior to
loads being applied, which consequently reduces the stiffness and
strength of the steel member.
⁎ Corresponding author at: School of Civil Engineering, Chongqing University,
Chongqing 400045, China.
E-mail address: wywang@cqu.edu.cn (W. Wang).
To investigate the distribution and quantify the magnitude of the re-
sidual stress, two experimental methods have been developed and ex-
tensively employed in current practice. The first method takes a
physical measurement via a non-destructive technology such as X-ray,
neutron diffraction, and ultrasonic. Le et al. [1] presented details of neu-
tron diffraction method for measuring residual stresses of two prismatic
I-beam samples and a web-tapered I-beam fabricated from Australian
BISPLATE-80 and BISPLATE-100 steel plates having nominal yield
stresses of 690 MPa and 890 MPa respectively. The other one denotes
as a mechanical measurement by means of drilling and cutting of spec-
imens [2]. The latter also refers to the sectioning method or cutting
method, and it is widely used to study the residual stress with high ac-
curacy [3]. For example, Ma et al. [4] investigated the residual stresses in
both longitudinal and transverse directions of three hollow sections
using the cutting method. Zheng et al. [5] studied the residual stress dis-
tribution of a new type of high-strength welded stainless steel by the
cutting method. Unsworth et al. [6] carried out residual stress tests on
a series of four welded steel test girders using the cutting method.
Compared with the experimental method, the numerical simulation
method is flexible, efficient, and economical. Consequently, attentions
have been paid to the study of residual stresses by numerical simulation.
For instance, Spoorenberg et al. [7] proposed a numerical simulation
technique to estimate the residual stresses in a curved wide flange

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcsr.2020.106455
0143-974X/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Z. Yang, W. Wang, J. Zhang et al.
section fabricated by the bending process of taper roll. Lee et al. [8] con-
ducted 3D fully coupled thermal-stress analyses to simulate the welding
process and predict distributions of welding induced residual stresses in
some T-joints fabricated with high strength steel box section. Lu et al.
[9] used different finite element software to compare the prediction ac-
curacy and computational efficiency of welding residual stress and de-
formation of T-joint of Q390 steel plate. Liu et al. [10] carried out
thermomechanical parametric studies on residual stresses in S355 and
S690 welded H-sections and proposed a residual stress pattern together
with the set of formulae for both S355 and S690 welded H-sections with
single-pass and multi-pass welding for accurate prediction of their
structural behavior. Liu and Chung [11] conducted a systematic
experimental and numerical investigation into thermal and mechanical
responses in four S690 welded steel H-sections with different cross-
sectional dimensions during and after welding and established models
in predicting temperature histories and residual stress distributions of
these welded sections.
In fire conditions, strength degradation and plastic deformation of
steel in welded steel members occur at elevated temperatures, and re-
leases initial residual stresses generated in the process of fabricating
steel members, such as flame cutting and welding. As to now, reported
research on the distributions of welding induced residual stresses in
welded steel sections after being exposed to high temperatures is lim-
ited. A preliminary investigation revealed that the welded H-sections
and box-sections exhibited different residual stress distributions after
being exposure to fire [12] due to the plastic and creep deformations
caused by elevated temperatures. Wang et al. [13-14] subsequently car-
ried out an experimental study on the distribution of the residual
stresses in welded H-sections and box-sections fabricated with mild
Q235 steel and high strength Q460 steel after an exposure to high tem-
perature. The experimental results showed that the residual stresses
were significantly reduced after being exposed to high temperatures,
and the corresponding reduction factors of residual stresses were pro-
posed. Lu [15] has investigated the effect of creep on the prediction ac-
curacy and calculation efficiency of post-weld heat treatment residual
stress. Li et al. [16] analyzed the distribution of the residual stresses in
P92 steel welded joints at 760 °C by using the indirect coupling method
provided in ANSYS. Jiang et al. [17] investigated the influence of post-
weld heat treatment process on magnitudes of the residual stresses in
high strength steel welded box columns by employing software
SYSWELD and ABAQUS. All the aforementioned studies show that the
residual stresses decline significantly at high temperatures or after
being exposed to high temperatures.
Accurate evaluation of load bearing capacity of steel members sub-
jected to elevated temperature is essential to assess the structural integ-
rity of steel structures in fire. In the current fire design of steel
structures, the distribution and magnitudes of residual stress in steel
member subjected to elevated temperature are assumed to be similar
to those at ambient temperature due to lack of research. However, this
assumption is likely lead to underestimation of the load bearing capac-
ity of a steel member at elevated temperature. Therefore, comprehen-
sion of the actual residual stress distribution becomes essential for
accurately predicting the load bearing capacity of a steel member
when it is subjected to elevated temperature. In addition, post-fire re-
sidual stress distribution in steel members plays a vital role in assessing
structural integrity for steel structures being exposed to building fires.
Consequently, it is of importance to investigate the residual stress distri-
bution of a welded steel member at elevated temperature and after a
fire exposure.
In this paper, both magnitudes and distributions of the residual
stresses of Q690 steel welded H-sections and box-sections after expo-
sures to high temperatures were measured by using the cutting
method. Finite element simulations on distributions of the residual
stress were also conducted by employing the ANSYS software pack-
age, and the finite element model established in this study was vali-
dated by the test results. Parametric analyses were conducted to
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Journal of Constructional Steel Research 177 (2021) 106455
study the influences of exposed temperature, high temperature dura-
tion, and creep deformation on magnitude and distributions of the
residual stress after being exposed to high temperatures. The findings
of this paper can provide a reference for evaluating the load bearing
capacity of high strength Q690 steel welded structural members in
fire and after fire exposure.
2. Experimental program
The residual stresses in six high strength Q690 steel welded speci-
mens were tested by the cutting method with consideration of the influ-
ence of cross-section shape and exposed temperature.
2.1. Specimen preparation
Three H-section specimens and three box-section specimens were
welded with high strength Q690 steel plate with thickness of 14 mm.
The width and height of the welded H-section and box-section was
both 300 mm. The length of all the specimens is 1200 mm. The mechan-
ical properties of the Q690 steel at ambient temperature were obtained
by tension coupon test with tensile strength, yield strength and ultimate
elongation being 805 MPa, 706 MPa, and 19.5%, respectively. Automatic
submerged arc welding was used for fabrication of the H-section by fil-
let welds with leg size of 14 mm. The electrode CHW-S80 ϕ 4.0 was used
with the welding current of 600A and welding voltage of 30 V. The
welding speed was 14 cm/min. Semi-automatic submerged arc welding
was adopted for fabrication of the box-sections by butt welding with a
groove angle of 45°. The welding current, voltage and speed were
600A, 37 V and 26 cm/min, respectively. Three target temperatures
were designed, namely ambient temperature (25 °C), 600 °C, and
800 °C. At each temperature, two specimens, including a H-section
and a box-section were tested. The specimen designation and corre-
sponding target temperatures are tabulated in Table 1, where H and B
represent the H-section and box-section, respectively.
2.2. Test equipment and arrangement
The heating equipment to the specimen is an electric furnace with
the maximum power of 160 kW. The maximum temperature and
heating rate of the furnace is 1200 °C and 35 °C/min, respectively. The
temperatures of the furnace and specimens were measured by K-type
thermocouples with a diameter of 2 mm and a maximum working tem-
perature of 1000 °C. The placements of the thermocouples on the spec-
imen are shown in Fig. 1. Two thermocouples placed inside the electric
furnace were located along the 1/4 and 3/4 height of the electric furnace.
For the H-section specimens, six thermocouples were located in the
middle of the web and a distance of 25 mm away from the flange
ends. The thermocouples in the box-section specimens were arranged
at a distance of 25 mm from the flange or web ends, with a total of 8
thermocouples being used for each specimen.
The measuring equipment for cutting strip length used in the cutting
method are a YB-15 hand-held strain gauge, a displacement meter, a
standard strip and a temperature compensation strip (as shown in
Fig. 2). The gauge length of the displacement meter is 150 mm, with
the measuring range of 148.5 mm to 151.5 mm.
The test procedures consist of two main phases, namely the heating
and cooling phase and the residual stress measurement phase. In the
first phase, the specimen was fixed inside of the electric furnace, and
fire insulation was applied on the upper and lower ends of the furnace
Table 1
Specimen No. and target temperatures.
Specimen H0 H1 H2 B0 B1 B2
Target temperature 25 °C 600 °C 800 °C 25 °C 600 °C 800 °C
Z. Yang, W. Wang, J. Zhang et al.
Fig. 1. The arrangement of thermocouples on specimens.
Fig. 2. YB-15 hand-held strain gauge.
to prevent heat lost. Then, the target temperature was set up and the
heating rate of the electric furnace was set as 20 °C/min, and the tem-
perature evolution in the specimen and the electric furnace were re-
corded. When the readings of all the thermocouples reached the
target temperature, the electric furnace was turned off immediately
and the specimen was let to cool naturally. When the temperature of
a specimen was wholly cooled to ambient temperature, the specimen
was taken out from the furnace. In the second phase, the residual
stresses were measured by cutting method. The cutting scheme of H-
section and box-section is the same and an example of a H-section
and strips are shown in Fig. 3. The detailed procedures of measuring
the residual stresses were available in Ref. [13].
3. Test results and discussions
3.1. Temperature evolution and specimen color after fire exposure
The temperature-time curve of the furnace and specimen measured
by the thermocouples during the heating and cooling phases are plotted
in Fig. 4. Several thermocouples were damaged during heating or
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Journal of Constructional Steel Research 177 (2021) 106455
cooling stage and only available results were presented. As can be
seen from the figure, the temperature of each specimen increased at a
constant rate at the beginning of heating. When the temperature in
the furnace approached to the target temperature, the heating rate
slowed down, and all the measured temperatures of the thermocouples
reached the target temperature within about one hour. The heating rate
of the H-section and box-section specimens was about 18 °C/min and
14 °C/min, respectively. The temperature increasing rate of box-
section specimen was lower than that of H-section specimen can be at-
tributed to a fact that the box-section is a closed section and the heat in
the furnace could not directly enter inside of the specimen. Generally,
the electric furnace can heat the specimen well according to the desig-
nated heating rate. When the specimens cooled naturally, the tempera-
ture of the specimens fell to ambient temperature in about 5 h. The color
spectrum of the specimens before and after fire exposure was shown in
Fig. 5. As can be seen from the figure, after fire exposure, the surface
color of the specimen become brown and there is not significant differ-
ence between the specimens after exposure to 600 °C and 800 °C,
respectively.
3.2. Residual stress distribution
Fig. 6 illustrates magnitudes and distributions of the residual stresses
in the H-sections and box-sections after exposure to high temperatures.
It can be observed that the residual tensile stresses were generated near
the welding seam, and the residual compressive stresses were gener-
ated further away from the welding zone and almost uniformly distrib-
uted. As the section shape and welding seams on the specimen are
symmetrical, resulting in the residual stress distribution along the
cross section is also symmetrical. The instantaneous high temperature
induced by flame cutting resulted in thermal expansion and plastic de-
formation at the cutting edge, which was restrained by the surrounding
cool zone. When the flame cutting edge cooled after cutting, the con-
traction due to decrease of the temperature was restrained by the adja-
cent zone, so that there was a significant residual tensile stress
generated at the flange edge of the H-section.
It can be seen from Fig. 6 that distribution of both H-section and box-
section on the whole sections were symmetric due to the symmetry of
Z. Yang, W. Wang, J. Zhang et al. Journal of Constructional Steel Research 177 (2021) 106455

Fig. 3. Sectioning scheme and photo of section strips.

Fig. 4. The temperature-time curve of specimens and furnace.

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Fig. 5. Photo of the specimen before and after fire exposure.

Fig. 6. The values and distribution of the residual stresses in the specimens.

Fig. 6 (continued).

5
Z. Yang, W. Wang, J. Zhang et al.
Fig. 7. Residual stress self-balancing deviation in the specimens.
the sections. Prior to the exposure to high temperature, the maximum
residual tensile stresses in the middle and ends of the flange in the H-
section were respectively 560 MPa and 280 MPa, which correspond to
80% and 40% of the yield strength of Q690 steel, respectively. The max-
imum residual compressive stress of the web in the H-section was
54 MPa which only accounts for 8% of the yield strength of Q690 steel.
As for the box-sections, the maximum residual tensile stresses in flanges
and webs were respectively 473 MPa and 460 MPa, which account for
approximately 67% of the yield strength of Q690 steel. It is also noted
at the ends of the web, the maximum residual tensile stress appeared
near the welding zone rather than in the weld itself. This phenomenon
was also reported by Nie et al. [18] in an investigation of the residual
stress of Q460 steel box-shape sections. This phenomenon could be at-
tributed to the fact that the elastic modulus of the weld metal,
i.e., weld electrode, was lower than that of Q690 steel. According to
the test results reported by Rezaeian et al. [19], the elastic modulus of
steel welds of E6013 and E7018 electrodes were only 133.2 MPa and
134.1 MPa, respectively.
Since the welding residual stresses distributed across the cross-
section of a specimen are naturally self-equilibrating, the measured
residual stress verification requires this equilibrium condition to be sat-
isfied. The self-balancing deviations for the stresses in the six speci-
mens are plotted in Fig. 7. It is shown that the maximum deviation
only reaches 30 MPa and most of deviation did not exceed 10 MPa.
The deviation ratio defined as the ratio of deviation to the yield
strength is also plotted in Fig. 7. The plots indicated that the deviation
ratios in the whole sections are less than 5% of the nominal yield
strength, which represents high accuracy of the residual stress mea-
surement. This accuracy is close to the report in literature [11].
Also observed from the figure, after being exposed to the high tem-
perature, the distribution pattern of residual stresses in the sections was
similar to that in the sections without being exposed to high tempera-
ture. However, the magnitudes of the residual stresses were greatly re-
duced. For example, when the exposed temperature reached 600 °C, the
residual compressive stresses in the flange of the H-section and web of
the box-section was 36.8% and 34.0% of that at ambient temperature, re-
spectively. Whereas for the specimens being exposed to 800 °C, the cor-
responding residual compressive stresses was approximately 15% of
that at ambient temperature with the remaining ratios (the ratio of re-
maining residual stress to the yield strength of Q690 steel after being
exposed to high temperature) below 10%. In such case, the residual
stress of the section was almost entirely released. The reason for the re-
duction of welding induced residual stresses after being exposed to a
higher temperature is that plastic deformation and creep deformation
associated with the higher temperature lead to significant degradation
of the elastic modulus and yield strength of the steel, which
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Journal of Constructional Steel Research 177 (2021) 106455
consequently release the residual stresses in the section induced by
welding process. The similar residual stress variation in welded Q460
steel sections was reported by Wang et al. [12]–[14]. Therefore, it can
be concluded that high temperature exposure has a significant effect
on reducing the residual stresses in welded steel sections. The higher
the temperature is exposed, the more significant the reduction has
been observed, which leads to lower residual stress.
4. Finite element modeling
Although the residual stresses in the welded Q690 steel sections
after an exposure to high temperature can be physically measured, the
current test methods cannot be directly applied to measure the residual
stresses in welded steel sections under fire conditions. ANSYS software,
a versatile tool to simulate the thermal and structure behavior by means
of finite element analysis, can be used to mimic the residual stress asso-
ciated with the welding process and the heating process of any fire sce-
narios for welded steel sections.
4.1. Basic assumptions and material properties
Reasonable simplifications of boundary conditions and welding pro-
cess are helpful to the establishment of a thermal transfer model. The
boundary conditions were assumed that the initial temperature of the
welding is the ambient temperature with the welding speed and heat
input of the welding remaining as constants. The heat radiation of the
welding process was ignored since it its influence on temperature distri-
bution becomes substantial when the temperature is higher than 600 °C.
As welding temperature can reach 2500 °C during welding, but the tem-
perature decreases to 500 °C within 10 s [12]. Therefore, only thermal
conduction and thermal convection are taken into consideration. The in-
direct coupling scheme in ANSYS was adopted to simulate welding, and
thermal elastic-plastic analysis theory was employed in the calculation of
welding induced residual stresses. In addition, three other assumptions
were made, including material nonlinearity and geometric nonlinearity,
Von Mises yield criterion, plastic flow criterion and strengthening crite-
rion were selected to simulate the steel behavior.
In the thermal analysis, the thermal convection calculation is given
by Newton law of cooling:
qk ¼ α k ΔT ð1Þ
where ΔT(K) is the temperature difference between fluid and object
surface; αK (W/m2K) is the coefficient of thermal convection.
In the thermal and stress analysis, thermal and mechanical proper-
ties of steel were used. The thermal properties include density, thermal
Z. Yang, W. Wang, J. Zhang et al.
conductivity, specific heat, enthalpy value, thermal convection coeffi-
cient, Poisson's ratio and thermal expansion coefficient. In the absence
of the relevant data for Q690 steel, all the thermal properties were
adopted from EC3 [20] and are shown in Fig. 8(a). The mechanical prop-
erties of Q690 steel include yield strength, elastic modulus, stress-strain
relationships and creep strain. All the properties up to 900 °C, including
at ambient temperature and at elevated temperatures are determined
by the test results reported in Ref. [21] since the steel in [21] is identical
to the one in this study. When the temperature exceeds 1000 °C, the
elastic modulus and yield strength deteriorate significantly. For conve-
nience of convergence in the analysis, the reduction factors of elastic
modulus and yield strength of the steel at 1200 °C and above were de-
fined as 10−9 and 10−12, respectively. The reduction factor of yield
strength and elastic modulus are shown in Fig. 8(b).
The Norton creep model provided by ANSYS can be used in stress
analysis when creep strain is taken into consideration. The expression
of the model is:
ε cr ¼ C 1 σ C 2 e−C 3 =T
:
where εcr and σ are creep strain rate and stress, respectively; T is tem-
perature in steel; C1, C2 and C3 are coefficients related to the type of
steel. According to the creep test on Q690 steel by Wang et al. [21],
the coefficients were adopted as C1 = 2.79E-47, C2 = 7.8 and
C3 = 4200, respectively.
4.2. Finite element model
SOLID70 and SOLID90 elements in ANSYS were adopted for thermal
analysis. SOLID70 has 8 nodes and it is used for thermal analysis of the
base steel plate. SOLID90 is higher order form of SOLID70 and it is
used for thermal analysis of welding zone and flame cutting zone,
since it has a so called “birth-and-death” function and can be applied
to a heat source. SOLID185 and SOLID186 elements were used for stress
analysis and they are transferred from SOLID70 and SOLID90, respec-
tively. Only half of the H-shape section and a quarter of the box-shape
section were modeled due to the symmetry of the sections so that
much computational cost could be saved. In the welding and flange
flame cutting zones, the dimension of the element mesh was 2 mm,
whereas the dimension of the mesh was 5 mm for other regions. Ac-
cording to mesh sensitivity studies in a previous numerical simulation
[9], the use of more refined mesh dimension resulted in only minor im-
provements on accuracy of analysis results but greatly increased the
computational efforts. By comparing different mesh dimensions, it
demonstrated that the presented mesh dimension is efficient in terms
Fig. 8. Material properties of steel at elevated temperatures.
Journal of Constructional Steel Research 177 (2021) 106455
of both result accuracy and computational effort. The finite element
model of the H-section and box-section is shown in Fig. 9.
4.3. Thermal and stress analysis
The thermal analysis for H-section includes the temperature evalua-
tion in flange flame cutting zone and the welding zone. The study by
Huang [22] indicated that the magnitude and distribution of tempera-
ture in flange flame cutting zone, when the cutting process kept a con-
stant speed along the longitudinal direction, can be simulated by
applying an initial temperature (400 °C) on the all the elements within
7 mm zone away from the flange edge. The simulation result of typic
temperature distribution of H-section at cutting edge and during
welding are shown in Fig. 10. In the welding process, the maximum
temperature can reach more than 2000 °C. The so-called “element
birth-and-death” technique provided in ANSYS was employed to simu-
late the welding process. By inputting a moving heat source, the tem-
perature in welding zone can be simulated. Double ellipsoid heat
ð2Þ source model was adopted in the analysis. The dimensions of the heat
source are determined by filled weld and the length of the heat source
model along the filled weld is 14 mm. The heat generation rate is calcu-
lated by:
ηUI
q¼ ð3Þ
V
where, U and I are the welding voltage and welding current, respec-
tively; η is the welding heat efficiency and its value can be set as 0.7;
and V is the welding volume per unit time.
The box-section has no free flame cutting edge, and only the temper-
ature in welding zone is considered in the thermal analysis. The welding
current U, welding voltage I, and welding speed used in Eq. (3) are de-
termined according to the actual welding for the box-section. The typi-
cal temperature distribution in box-section during and after welding are
shown in Fig. 11. The welding time only last 160 s and after welding, the
specimen cooled down naturally. After 1000 s cooling, the temperature
of the specimen decreased to approximately 100 °C.After 24,000 s
cooling, the temperature of the specimen decreased to the ambient
temperature 33 °C.
The model of welding residual stress analysis can directly utilize the
established model from thermal analysis with revision of the element
types. Considering the long heating time of the specimens, the influence
of creep strain in steel on the residual stresses in the sections should be
considered. The measured temperatures of the specimen in the heating
and cooling test were applied on the nodes of the stress analysis model.
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Z. Yang, W. Wang, J. Zhang et al. Journal of Constructional Steel Research 177 (2021) 106455

Fig. 9. Discretization of the finite element model.

Fig. 10. Temperature distribution of H-section.

Fig. 11. Welding temperature distribution of box-section.

4.4. Simulation results of residual stress
The simulation results of typical residual stress distribution after
welding and after 800 °C heating are shown in Figs. 12 and 13, respec-
tively for H-section and box-section. The figures illustrate that the resid-
ual stress distribution after welding or heating along the length of the
welding specimen is almost uniform except at two ends. In a cross-
section of H-section and box- section specimen, the residual stresses
at the location of welding seam approach 427 MPa and 584 MPa, respec-
tively. After 800 °C heating, the maximum residual stress declined to
less than 100 MPa, both for H-section and box-section specimens.
The comparison of the residual stresses obtained by the finite ele-
ment simulation and the tests of the H-section and box-section is
shown in Figs. 14 and 15, respectively. As can be seen from the two

8
Z. Yang, W. Wang, J. Zhang et al.
Fig. 12. Typical residual stress distribution of H-section.
Fig. 13. Typical residual stress distribution of box-section.
figures, the numerical results are in good agreement with the test re-
sults in general. The minor difference between the numerical and exper-
imental results can be attributed to the following two facts. First, the
actual welding is a complex process which can influenced by many fac-
tors, whereas the process simulated by the finite element analysis is an
idealized and simplified process. As a result, the residual compressive
stresses distribution obtained by the FEA model is more uniform than
that obtained in test. Secondly, the results obtained from the tests are
based on the measurement of the average values within the strip
width. The residual stresses along the thickness of the steel plate was
not considered. In the finite element analysis, the residual stresses ex-
tracted from the nodes located in the middle of section thickness
which represents the mean values of the outer and inner surfaces of
the model.
5. Parametric studies
The validation and accuracy of the established finite element model
has been evaluated by the test data. In order to obtain the residual
stresses at elevated temperature and to quantify the effect of key factors
on the residual stress in welded Q690 steel sections, parametric studies
were performed to analyze the influence of exposed temperature, high
temperature duration and creep strain in steel on the reduction of resid-
ual stresses.
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Journal of Constructional Steel Research 177 (2021) 106455
5.1. The exposed temperature
In addition to the two test temperatures of 600 °C and 800 °C, target
temperatures with 100 °C temperature increment were adopted for an-
alyzing corresponding residual stresses starting from 100 °C up to
900 °C. According to the stress-time history relationships of the speci-
mens in the heating and cooling stages, the residual stresses at and
after being exposed to the elevated temperature for H-section and
box-section are shown in Figs. 16 and 17, respectively. It is shown in
Fig. 16 that the residual stresses decrease slowly when the exposed
temperature is lower than 400 °C. After being exposed to 200 °C, the re-
sidual stresses decrease approximately 5%. Once the temperature
reached 400 °C, the residual stress reduction is 17%. When the exposed
temperature was between 400 °C to 600 °C, the reduction rate of the re-
sidual stresses accelerated. For instance, when the exposed tempera-
tures were 500 °C and 600 °C, the residual stresses were 50% and 23%
of that at ambient temperature, respectively. Once the exposed temper-
ature was higher than 600 °C, the reduction rate of the residual stresses
decreased again. For instance, after being exposed to 800 °C, the maxi-
mum residual stress was about 8% of that at ambient temperature. The
trend indicates that once the exposed temperature exceeds 800 °C, the
increase in temperature has no obvious effect on the further reduction
of the residual stress in the section. This can be explained why 650 °C
is often selected as the target temperature to reduce residual stress in
practice. The reduction rate of the residual stress at different tempera-
ture exposure is related to the reduction factor of the mechanical
Z. Yang, W. Wang, J. Zhang et al. Journal of Constructional Steel Research 177 (2021) 106455

Fig. 14. Residual stress comparison between the FEA results and test results of H-section.

Fig. 14 (continued).

Fig. 14 (continued).

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Z. Yang, W. Wang, J. Zhang et al. Journal of Constructional Steel Research 177 (2021) 106455

Fig. 15. Residual stress comparison between the FEA results and test results of box-section.

Fig. 15 (continued).

properties of steel at elevated temperatures. As can be seen from Fig. 8 The distribution of residual stress in the both sections at elevated
(b), the reduction rates of yield strength and elastic modulus of Q690 temperature shown in Fig. 17 is similar to that after being exposed to
steel at elevated temperatures have a same reduction rate with residual high temperature as shown in Fig. 16. The difference is that the residual
stresses. stresses at a high temperature are slightly lower than those after being

Fig. 15 (continued).

11
Z. Yang, W. Wang, J. Zhang et al.
Fig. 16. Residual stress distribution of welded sections after an exposure to high temperature.
exposed to the same high temperature. For example, the residual stress
in the H-shape section was reduced about 7% at 200 °C, 26% at 400 °C,
16% at 600 °C, and only 3% at 800 °C. The reduction factor of the residual
stresses at high temperatures was less than that after being exposed to
high temperatures, ranging from 4% to 10% with average of 5.5%. Simi-
larly, the residual stress of box-shape section was reduced about 14%
at 200 °C, 37% at 400 °C, 28% at 500 °C, and only 3% at 800 °C. The reduc-
tion factor of the residual stress at a high temperature was also lower
than that after being exposed to high temperature exposure, ranging
from 2% to 8% with average of 5%.
5.2. High temperature duration
Jiang et al. [23] conducted an experimental investigation on the ther-
mal stress relaxation of the residual stress at the welding seam of a low
carbon steel. It is concluded that the primary factors influencing the re-
sidual stress in the sections after heat treatment are the temperature
and constant temperature time (high temperature duration). In order
to find the effect of high temperature duration on the residual stress
after an exposure to high temperature, the residual stresses of both sec-
tions were analyzed at high temperature duration 2000s at 600 °C and
800 °C, respectively.
The residual stresses located at the centerline of the flange of the H-
section and the edge of the flange of the box-section were compared
with the analysis results associated with that without constant temper-
ature time, as shown in Fig. 18. When the temperature was 600 °C, the
residual tensile stress of the flange in the H-section and the box-section
reduced to 24 MPa and 22 MPa, respectively after a constant time of
2000s. When the exposure temperature rises to 800 °C, the influence
12
Journal of Constructional Steel Research 177 (2021) 106455
of the constant temperature time on the residual stress decreases.
With the same constant time, the residual stresses of the H-section
and box-section decrease by only 5 MPa and 4 MPa, respectively. It
can be concluded that the magnitude of the residual stress decreases
as the constant temperature time increases, but the effect associated
with extending the constant temperature time is not as significant as in-
creasing the exposure temperature. The primary reason is that once the
temperature reaches 800 °C, the residual stresses in the section are rel-
atively small and there is no sufficient plastic deformation in steel.
Therefore, increase the constant temperature time does not significantly
reduce the residual stress.
5.3. Creep strain
In order to investigate the influence of creep strain on the residual
stresses after exposure to high temperature, the magnitudes of residual
stresses after being exposed to 800 °C obtained with and without con-
sidering creep strain were illustrated in Fig. 19. The vertical coordinate
of the figure delignates the maximum residual tensile stress in the
flange. The horizontal coordinate of the figure denotes the time associ-
ated with the heating and cooling stages. It is demonstrated in the figure
that creep strain has a significant influence on the reduction of residual
stresses. For that reason, the results obtained from the numerical simu-
lation may not be valid if the creep strain associated with the elevated
temperature is not considered in the analysis. In general, creep strain
has two major effects related to the reduction of the residual stresses.
Firstly, in the stage of heating the specimen, the creep strain in the
zone associated with the maximum tension residual stress develops
quickly with the increase of temperature since the stress ratio and
Z. Yang, W. Wang, J. Zhang et al.
Fig. 17. Residual stress distribution of welded section at elevated temperature.
temperature are considerably high, and the magnitude of the residual
stresses decrease correspondingly. When the temperature reaches
800 °C, the maximum residual tensile stress in the flange of the H-
section is 17 MPa, which is only about 20% of 91 MPa(the maximum re-
sidual tensile stress without considering the creep effect). Similarly, the
maximum residual stress in the flange of the box-section is 16 MPa,
which is only 18% of the maximum residual tensile stress without con-
sidering the creep effect.
Secondly, in the cooling stage, the deformation is mostly associated
with elastic behavior if creep strain was ignored, and the magnitude of
the residual stress in the FEA model rises substantially with the cooling
of the sections. For example, the residual stresses in the flange of the H-
section would be recovered to 159 MPa in cooling stage if the creep ef-
fect was neglected, but the actual residual stress recovery was only
26 MPa. The creep action can significantly reduce the residual stress
after high temperature, which improves the strength of steel members
under and after the fire, and has a favorable effect on the bearing capac-
ity of steel members. The bearing capacity design of steel columns after
high temperature without considering the creep effect may be
conservative.
6. Reduction factors of residual stresses
Based on results of the finite element analysis, the magnitudes of re-
sidual stresses were obtained in the welded sections for the cases after
13
Journal of Constructional Steel Research 177 (2021) 106455
being exposed high temperatures 100 °C to 900 °C and as well as at
these high temperatures were obtained. Reduction factor of residual
stress, which is defined as a ratio of the maximum residual stress at
the high temperature or after an exposure to high temperature, is intro-
duced to quantify the variation of the residual stress at or after being ex-
posed to high temperature. For the H-section and box-section, four
reduction factors were calculated to quantify the tensile and compres-
sive residual stress reductions in the flange, and as well as the tensile
and compressive residual reductions in the web.
The reduction factors in flange and web for both H-section and box-
section were shown in Fig. 20. Although all residual stresses follow
the same downward trend, the magnitudes of the reduction factors at
the same temperature are different. This can be attributed to the redis-
tribution of residual stress in the sections resulting from high tempera-
ture; nevertheless, the redistributed residual stresses still satisfy the
self-phase equilibrium in the section. Compared to the residual stress
distribution at ambient temperature, the distributions of residual stress
at and after being exposed to high temperature become more uniform
after the redistribution due to the effect of high temperature. For the
reason of simplicity, the reduction factors of residual stress at all loca-
tions in the sections at and after being exposed to high temperature
can be characterized by a single reduction factor referred as section re-
duction factor of residual stress. The section reduction factor is
calculated as the average value of the reduction factors of the four
peak residual stresses shown in Fig. 20 and are illustrated in Fig. 21. As
Z. Yang, W. Wang, J. Zhang et al. Journal of Constructional Steel Research 177 (2021) 106455

Fig. 18. Effect of constant temperature time on the residual stress.

discussed in Section 5.1, the reduction factor of residual stress at a high
temperature between 100 °C and 900 °C in H-section is less than that
after being exposed to the high temperature with an average value of
5.5%. For box-shape section, it is similar to that of the H-section with
an average value of 5%.
Based on results of tests and finite element analyses of residual stress
in welded H-section and box-section with mild Q235 steel and high-
strength Q460 steel conducted by Wang et al. [13], comparisons on
the corresponding residual stress reduction factors of Q235, Q460 and
Q690 steel are illustrated in Fig. 22. It can be seen from the figure that

Fig. 19. Effect of creep on residual stress after 800 °C exposure.

14
Z. Yang, W. Wang, J. Zhang et al. Journal of Constructional Steel Research 177 (2021) 106455

Fig. 20. Residual stress reduction factors at elevated temperature and after an exposure to high temperature.

the reduction factors at and after being exposed to high temperature for
H-section and box-section were almost the same when the temperature
is below 400 °C and higher than 700 °C, with an average difference less
than 5%. However, if the temperature is between 400 °C and 700 °C, the
differences among the three steel grades increase gradually with the in-
crease of the temperature, and the decrease rate of the residual stress
reduction factor of mild steel is significantly slower than those of the
high-strength steels. Generally, the effect of steel grade on the reduction
factor of residual stress is not that significant with an average difference
being only about 8%.
In order to predict the variations of residual stress in the both sec-
tions at and after an exposure to high temperature, equations based
on curve fitting of the results obtained from the finite element analyses
are proposed to calculate the reduction factor of the residual stress of

Fig. 21. Comparison of residual stress reduction factors at high temperature with that after an exposure to high temperature.

15
Z. Yang, W. Wang, J. Zhang et al. Journal of Constructional Steel Research 177 (2021) 106455

Fig. 22. Comparison of reduction factors of residual stress for three steel grades.

the three steel grades. The equations are divided into three temperature to uniform fire condition. If the steel members are subjected to local fire,
regions to achieve more accurate predictions and are expressed as: the reduction factor of residual stress is conservative since the high tem-
perature exposure has significant effect on the residual stress relief.
8
> 1
>
>
> 200 C ≤ T ≤ 400 C
>
> 1 þ ðT=550 Þ2:05
7. Concluding remarks
>
>
< 1
α rT ¼ 400 C ≤ T ≤ 600 C ð4Þ The welding induced residual stresses in high strength Q690 steel
>
> 1 þ ðT=460Þ
4:66
>
>
>
> 1
welded H-section and box-section were tested and simulated by using
>
> 600 C ≤ T ≤ 900 C
: the cutting method and ANSYS software, respectively. The distribution
1 þ ðT=485Þ5:82
and magnitude of the residual stresses in the welded high strength
8 Q690 steel sections at elevated temperatures and after being exposed
> 1
>
>
> 200 C ≤ T ≤ 400 C to high temperature are obtained. The primary conclusions of the
>
> 1 þ ðT=635 Þ2:14
study are as follows:
>
>
< 1
α rT ¼ 400 C ≤ T ≤ 600 C ð5Þ 1) After being exposed to high temperature, the residual stresses in the
> 1 þ ðT=485Þ5:13
>
>
> high strength Q690 steel welded sections decrease considerably and
>
> 1
>
> 600 C ≤ T ≤ 900 C the residual stress reduce to approximately 1/3 and 1/6 for the ex-
:
1 þ ðT=420Þ3:06 posed temperature of 600 °C and 800 °C, respectively.
2) Exposed temperature is a primary factor influence the magnitude of
where αrT is the reduction factor of residual stress at high temperature; residual stress in Q690 steel welded sections and the effect of expo-
α’rT is the reduction factor of residual stress after being exposed to high sure time on residual stress is negligible. Creep strain in steel at ele-
temperature; and T is the temperature in steel section. Fig. 22 compares vated temperature is another major factor resulting in the decrease
results between the finite element analysis and the proposed equations. of the residual stress in the welded steel sections both at and after
It can be seen from the figure that the proposed equations provide accu- being exposed to high temperature.
rate predictions on the residual stress reduction factors. 3) The remaining residual stresses at a high temperature between
It should be noted that the reduction factors of residual stress were 100 °C and 900 °C is about 5% lower in average than that after
obtained based on the assumption that the steel member was exposure being exposed to that temperature.

16
Z. Yang, W. Wang, J. Zhang et al.
4) The effect of steel grade on the reduction factor of residual stress is
not significant with an average difference being about 8%.
5) Proposed predicting equations for calculating the reduction factors
of the residual stress in the welded sections at and after being ex-
posed to high temperatures provide reasonable accuracy for the re-
duction factors.
Author Statement
Ziyue Yang: Data processing, Investigation, Writing - original draft.
Weiyong Wang: Conceptualization, Methodology, Supervision. Juan
Zhang: Formal analysis, Validation, Visualization. Lei Xu: Writing-
Reviewing and Editing.
Declaration of Competing Interest
We declare that we do not have any commercial or associative inter-
est that represents a conflict of interest in connection with the work
submitted.
Acknowledgment
The authors wish to acknowledge the support from the Funda-
mental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No.:
2019CDQYTM027) and Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant
No.: 51878096) and Chongqing University for granting the fourth au-
thor a visiting professorship. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions
or recommendations expressed in this paper are those of the authors
and do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsors.
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