Reliability assessment of EC3-1-5 methodology of welded slender cross-sections under direct stresses

Abstract

Although the stochastic nature of several parameters, the application of the methodology given in EN1993-1-5:2006 for the determination of the resistance of class 4 cross-sections under direct stresses leads to the use of the effective area where each plate is individually assessed by a semi-empirical approach proposed by Winter in 1947. Once the level of reliability of this approach is not adequate in light of the rules given in EN1990, this paper aims at finding the actual safety level of the methodology given in EN1993-1-5. In order to achieved this, Monte Carlo simulations with a Latin Hypercube sampling strategy is performed in selected cross-sections under pure compression and pure bending with varying slenderness and aspect ratio of the web plate. All parameters are stochastically modelled, and each generated element (I- and H-section stubs) is numerically computed using a general-purpose finite element software. The final results are actual partial factors values and width reduction factors for each cross-section.