Residual stresses resulting from the fabrication of welded steel beams have a significant influence on the stability behaviour of steel members. To consider them in advanced numerical simulations, the models according to ECCS publication no. 33 or prEN1993–1-14 are commonly used. While the ECCS model was developed for steel grades S235 and S355, this model was also adapted in prEN1993–1-14 for the application to high-strength steels and scaled with the yield strength of the material. However, numerous investigations show that these models do not adequately represent existing residual stresses. This paper presents experimental studies of residual stresses conducted at the University of Coimbra and Ruhr-Universität Bochum. Based on these measurements, the influencing parameters on residual stresses were identified and subsequently a novel model for the representation of residual stresses was developed. The model was validated with an extensive data set from residual stress measurements from the last 50 years considering steel grades S235 to S890. Finally, numerical stability analyses were executed to investigate the effects of different residual stress approaches on the load-bearing behaviour of steel columns and beams.

Residual stresses have considerable effect on both the local and the member stability behaviour of steel structures. Previous studies have shown that the structural stability behaviour depends on both the distribution and the amplitude of the residual stresses. The residual stress distribution is affected by the cross-section geometry, the steel grade and the manufacturing process, e.g. flame cutting and the welding procedure. A realistic consideration of residual stresses is necessary for an efficient and safe design of steel structures. This article presents an experimental and numerical study on the influence of residual stresses on the stability behaviour of structural members, i.e. steel columns and beams considering a variety of cross-sectional slenderness, i.e. plastic, compact and slender cross-sections are taken into account. A novel residual stress model for welded I-shaped sections was developed and evaluated using test data. This model takes into account the main influencing parameters, i.e. the cross-sections geometry, the steel grade as well as manufacturing process with thermal cuts or non-thermal cuts of the steel plates. The novel residual stress model is then used to investigate the stability behaviour in terms of a numerical simulation study. The result of the study allows to propose an improvement of the buckling curve selection for welded high strength steel columns and beams.