Monotonic and cyclic response of mild, stainless, and high‐strength steels, and their welded connections

In the last decades, a significant number of studies have been devoted to the use of high‐performance steels in construction industry, due to their superior mechanical properties. High‐performance steels include, among others, austenitic stainless steel for its large ductility and excellent toughness and high‐strength steel for its high proof stress. When several steel grades are adopted in the same structural component, welded connections between dissimilar steels have a decisive importance in the seismic performance of a dissipative member. An experimental assessment of the monotonic and cyclic response of the of S235 mild‐carbon steel, 1.4404 austenitic stainless steel and S690 high‐strength steel is presented in this paper. The experimental program concerns a series of tensile tests and low‐cycle fatigue tests in several different protocols, performed both on base materials specimens, and on welded connections between dissimilar steels. Besides the material characterization which could provide reliable data for further calibration of the numerical models, the investigation of welded connections allows assessing the feasibility of combining dissimilar steels in dissipative structures.