Study of Fire Resistance Performance of Stiffened Welded Hollow Spherical Joint Under Axial Tension

To study the fire resistance performance of stiffened welded hollow spherical joints under axial tension, two specimens with load ratios of 0.4 and 0.6 were subjected. The temperature distribution, failure mode, and fire resistance performance of stiffened welded hollow spherical joints under axial tension were obtained. The test results show that the failure mode of the joint was a pull-out failure. During the heating process, the closer to the spherical equator, the higher the spherical temperature, and the temperature of the sphere at the stiffener is lower than that of the sphere at the non-stiffener. The load ratio has a great influence on the refractory performance of the stiffened welded hollow sphere joint. When the load ratio of the specimen is reduced from 0.60 to 0.40, the fire resistance time of the specimen increases by 4.47 min, and the critical temperature increases by 21.3 °C. According to the European Code, the finite element model for the stiffened welded hollow spherical joints is established. The effect law of various influencing factors on the fire resistance performance of stiffened welded hollow spherical joints is studied. The research results show that reducing the load ratio and increasing the thickness of the sphere can significantly improve the fire resistance performance of the joint. The calculation formula of the critical temperature of steel members in the current standard not suitable for the calculation of the critical temperature of the welded hollow spherical joint. The critical temperature values with different load ratios recommended by the current standard were relatively more conservative. Taking the ambient temperature as the fire resistance temperature, the finite element analysis results were fitted, and the formula for calculating the fire resistance temperature of the stiffened welded hollow spherical joint was proposed.