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Journal of Constructional Steel Research 67 (2011) 9921000

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Constructional Steel Research

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jcsr

Proposed residual stress model for roller bent steel wide flange sections
R.C. Spoorenberg a,b, , H.H. Snijder b , J.C.D. Hoenderkamp b
a

Materials Innovation Institute M2i, P.O. Box 5008, 2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands

Eindhoven University of Technology, Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, Den Dolech 2, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands

article

info

Article history:
Received 28 July 2010
Accepted 13 January 2011
Keywords:
Residual stress model
Curved steel
Roller bending
Wide flange section

abstract
The manufacturing process of structural wide flange steel sections introduces residual stresses in the
material. These stresses due to hot-rolling or welding influence the inelastic buckling response of
structural steel members and need to be taken into account in the design. Based on experimental data
standardized residual stress models have been proposed for inclusion in inelastic buckling analyses.
By incorporating these residual stress models their effect on the resistance of beams and columns can
be obtained. Residual stress models for roller bent steel sections are currently not available. Roller
bent wide flange sections are manufactured by curving straight members at ambient temperature. This
manufacturing technique, which is also known as roller bending, stresses the material beyond its yield
stress, thereby overriding the initial residual stresses prior to bending and generating an entirely new
pattern. This paper proposes a residual stress model for roller bent wide flange sections, based on
earlier conducted numerical investigations which were validated by experimental research performed
at Eindhoven University of Technology. The proposed residual stress model can serve as an initial state of
a roller bent steel section in fully non-linear finite element analyses to accurately predict its influence on
the inelastic buckling response.
2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

1.1. Residual stresses in straight steel members

The manufacturing process of structural steel members induces

residual stresses into the material. The residual stresses influence
the structural behavior of steel structures since their presence
causes early yielding of the material in specific locations of the
member. Especially for steel structures prone to inelastic buckling,
residual stresses are of major importance due to their detrimental
influence on the maximum resistance. The availability of a large
experimental database of residual stress measurements has led
to the development of residual stress models for different section
types, manufacturing procedures (e.g. hot-rolling, welding) and
material properties (mild steel, high strength steel). A residual
stress model comprises a simplified pattern and magnitude of
the residual stresses over the cross section of the profile. The
influence of residual stresses on the maximum resistance has been
investigated by employing residual stress models as an initial state
in a finite element model. Extensive computational work has led
to design rules which make allowance for the effect of residual
stresses on inelastic buckling.

1.1.1. Hot-rolled sections

The residual stresses in hot-rolled steel sections are caused
by differential cooling after roll forming. For a large number of
wide flange sections with different height-to-width ratios and steel
grades these stresses have been measured and published by Beedle
and Tall [1], Mas and Massonet [2], Lay and Ward [3], Daddi and
Mazzolani [4] and Young [5]. The results were summarized and
several residual stress models were proposed by Lay and Ward [3],
Young [5], Mazzolani [6] and ECCS [7], These models are featured
by compressive stresses at the flange tips and tension stresses
at the web-to-flange junctions. The webs of hot-rolled sections
are subject to either tensile or compressive stresses (Fig. 1(a)).
Throughout the paper tensile and compressive residual stresses
will be annotated by (+) and () respectively.
Although the proposed models suggest rather straightforward
residual stress patterns which are not significantly influenced by
the size of the section, the variability of the hot-rolled residual
stress patterns was emphasized by Young [5] and Tall and
Alpsten [8]. Section dimensions and cooling conditions have an
influence on hot-rolled residual stresses.

Corresponding author at: Eindhoven University of Technology, Faculty of

Architecture, Building and Planning, Den Dolech 2, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB
Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Tel.: +31 40 247 2948; fax: +31 40 245 0328.
E-mail address: r.c.spoorenberg@bwk.tue.nl (R.C. Spoorenberg).
0143-974X/$ see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jcsr.2011.01.009

1.1.2. Welded sections

Welded sections are manufactured by welding different plates
together. Due to the large amount of heat-input for the welding

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R.C. Spoorenberg et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 67 (2011) 9921000

(a) Hot-rolled.

(b) Welded.

993

(c) Roller straightened.

Fig. 1. Indicative residual stress patterns for hot-rolled, welded and roller straightened sections.

process, large residual stresses emerge as a result of unequal

cooling of the sections. The residual stresses in welded sections
have been measured in mild steel members by Tebedge et al. [9]
and in high strength steel by Beg and Hladnik [10]. The
experimental results are characterized by large tensile stresses,
with a magnitude of nearly the yield stress of the material in
the vicinity of the weld and smaller compressive stresses in the
remaining areas to equilibrate the tensile stresses. Models for
residual stresses in welded sections were presented by Young and
Robinson [11], see Fig. 1(b), and Chernenko and Kennedy [12].

and hence a lower inelastic buckling resistance. In addition, the

resistance reduction due to residual stresses depends on the type
of buckling, reflecting the complex interaction between residual
stresses and inelastic buckling. Current design codes take into
account the detrimental influence of residual stresses for beams
and columns which buckle in the inelastic range. Design codes
distinguish between welded and rolled sections for both minor and
major axis flexural buckling and lateral torsional buckling.

1.1.3. Roller straightened sections

After rolling and cooling in the mill, hot-rolled members may
possess an out-of-straightness in excess of the specified tolerances.
These members can be roller straightened or rotorized to meet
the fabrication tolerances for hot-rolled wide flange steel sections.
During this process the member is fed through a series of rolls,
thereby reducing its initial deformations. It has been found by
Alpsten [13] that the initial stresses due to differential cooling are
altered due to roller straightening. A new residual stress pattern
emerges with smaller values for the stresses when compared
to hot-rolled residual stresses, especially in the flanges. The
residual stress pattern depends to a large extent on the degree of
straightening forced on the section.
It was shown by Alpsten [13] that roller straightened wide
flange sections have a higher resistance than their non-rotorized
counterparts as a result of their lower residual stresses and
improved straightness. The influence of the roller-straightening
process is, however, not implemented in current design rules. A
distinctive residual stress pattern proposed by ECCS [7] (Fig. 1(c))
can be used for numerical computations for rotorized wide flange
sections, irrespective of their height-to-width ratio.

In recent years curved steel and arches have experienced an

expanding area of application. Curved steel has been frequently
used for roofs and bridges, combining architectural demands
with structural merits. Curved steel is often fabricated by
bending straight hot-rolled sections at ambient temperatures,
Bjorhovde [14]. The member is placed between three rolls, which
are positioned in a triangular arrangement, and a combination of
movement of the rolls and feeding the member between these rolls
induces a permanent curvature. This manufacturing technique is
better known as the roller bending process. Wide flange sections
can either be curved about the weak or strong axis into different
shapes, e.g. ellipse, parabola or circle. This paper is limited to
circular arches curved about the strong axis. When bent about the
strong axis the top flange and bottom flange experience plastic
elongation and shortening in longitudinal direction respectively.
Since the roller bending process involves plastic bending, the initial
residual stresses prior to roller bending are altered due to the
curving process [15,16].

1.1.4. Influence on resistance

The proposed indicative stress models shown in Fig. 1 have been
employed as initial states of stress in structural steel members for
computer analyses to assess their influence on the resistance and
loaddeflection characteristics. All these residual stress models are
based on the membrane component (averaged residual stress over
web thickness and flange thickness) without bending (residual
stress gradient over web thickness and flange thickness). Nonlinear finite element analyses have shown that the maximum
resistance is significantly influenced by the magnitude and pattern
of the residual stresses, as summarized in ECCS [7]. In general it
was observed that especially large compressive residual stresses in
the flange tips are detrimental to the inelastic buckling resistance
of beams and columns. For these members premature yielding
takes place at the flange tips, resulting in a stiffness reduction

1.2. Roller bent steel

1.3. Residual stresses and inelastic arch buckling

Due to their slenderness and in-plane force distribution
which is characterized by large compressive actions, arches are
susceptible to either in-plane (Fig. 2(a)) or out-of-plane buckling
(Fig. 2(b)). The inelastic buckling behavior of steel arches has
mainly been investigated by means of finite element analyses,
incorporating geometrical imperfections, material non-linearities
and residual stresses. The residual stress models were based
on either typical welding residual stresses (Fig. 3(a) and (b)
for which fy = the yield stress) or hot-rolled residual stresses
(Fig. 3(c)). Studies on in-plane buckling have been presented by
Pi and Trahair [17] and Pi et al. [18]. Finite element analyses on
inelastic out-of-plane buckling were carried out by Komatsu and
Sakimoto [19], Sakimoto and Komatsu [20], Pi and Trahair [21],
Pi and Bradford [22] and Pi and Bradford [23]. The finite element
computations led to the development of design rules to obtain the
resistance for steel arches.

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(a) In-plane instability.

(b) Out-of-plane instability.

Fig. 2. Instability phenomena of arches.

(a) Komatsu and

Sakimoto [19].

(b) Sakimoto and

Komatsu [20].

(c) Pi and Bradford [23].

(d) Suggested roller

bending.

Fig. 3. Adopted residual stress patterns for studying inelastic buckling behavior of steel arches.

The influence of the roller bending process on the pattern and

magnitude of the residual stresses was not implemented in the
finite element models. A classical cold bent residual stress pattern
as initially proposed by Timoshenko [24] for solid rectangular
sections and suggested by King and Brown [25] (Fig. 3(d)) to be
applicable to roller bent wide flange sections, was mentioned by Pi
and Bradford [23] and Pi et al. [18]. In Fig. 3(d) Mpl is the full plastic
moment and Mel is the elastic moment of the cross section. The
study of the structural behavior of steel arches subject to in-plane
loading necessitates a detailed knowledge of residual stresses in
roller bent steel sections bent about the major axis in view of
their influence on the inelastic buckling response of steel arches.
In the research program on the behavior of steel arch structures
at Eindhoven University of Technology, residual stresses were first
measured in a number of roller bent and straight wide flange
sections of different steel grade, section type and bending radius.
The results have been published earlier by Spoorenberg et al. [15].
The experimental phase was followed by the development of a
finite element model to estimate the residual stresses in roller bent
sections, [16]. This finite element model was used to simulate the
complete roller bending process. Experimental values were used
to corroborate numerical results. Good agreement in averaged
residual stresses over the flange thickness and web thickness was
observed, demonstrating the validity of the finite element model.
Subsequently, it was found that residual stresses in roller bent
wide flange sections display a pattern that is significantly different
from a typical hot-rolled pattern (Fig. 3(c)) or cold bent pattern
based on the proposal by Timoshenko (Fig. 3(d)). Considering the
observations from the first research phases, the final step is an
examination of all numerical data to arrive at a residual stress
model for circular roller bent wide flange steel sections bent
around the major axis. The proposed residual stress model will be
compared against the experimental and numerical data as a final
check on the accuracy.

thickness and the flange thickness. The finite element model was
not developed to simulate the residual stress gradients over the
web thickness and the flange thickness. However, it yields averaged residual stresses over the web and flange thickness for the entire cross section. An experimental approach for obtaining residual
stresses cannot yield data for the entire cross section due to placement requirements of the strain gauges. It was therefore decided
to employ finite element analyses to generate residual stresses
which can be used in the development of a proposal for a roller
bent residual stress model, thereby ignoring residual stress gradients over the web thickness and the flange thickness. In view of
earlier developed residual stress models [4,10] for straight steel
members, which also ignored the measured residual stress gradient over the web thickness and the flange thickness, this simplification was considered appropriate. Residual stresses were obtained
for a total of 18 wide flange steel sections by simulation in the
finite element environment. Two steel grades, four different sections and five bending radii were used which yielded 8 different
bending ratios (Table 1). The bending ratio equals the radius of the
circular arch divided by the nominal height of the cross section. An
increase of the bending ratio means a decrease of the degree of cold
working, when the height of the section is kept constant. As part of
the experimental procedure to measure residual stresses, tensile
tests were performed on coupons taken from the flanges of straight
reference sections to obtain the yield stress and ultimate tensile
stress, according to NEN-EN 10002-1 [26] and EN 10025 [27]. These
straight sections were originally attached to the roller bent specimens and give information on the state of the material prior to
roller bending. Dividing the numerically obtained residual stresses
by the measured yield stresses of the straight material gives normalized residual stress values.

2. Residual stress analyses based on finite element computations

The roller bent residual stresses obtained by finite element

analysis of all 18 wide flange sections are presented in Fig. 4 at
normalized locations. The residual stresses in the top flange range
from 0fy to 0.2fy at the tips and at the web-to-flange junction
they range from 0.2fy to 0.2fy . The bottom flange is featured by
compressive stresses at the flange tips that range from 0.1fy to

It has been shown by Spoorenberg et al. [16] that close agreement can be attained between finite element analyses and experimental results for the averaged residual stresses over the web

2.1. Numerically obtained roller bent residual stresses

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995

Table 1
Mechanical properties and bending ratio of steel members.
Section type

Steel grade

S235
HE 100A
S355

S235
HE 100B
S355

HE 360B

S235
S355
S235

IPE 360
S355

Bending radius R (mm)

Mechanical properties straight reference sections (N/mm2 )

Bending ratio R/h ()

Yield stress fy

Tensile stress ft

1910
2546
3820
1910
2546
3820

322
279

433
418

364

566

1910
2546
3820
1910
2546
3820

248
285

411
412

386
390

492
495

8000
8000

269
357

389
534

22.22
22.22

4500
8000
4500
8000

297

414

361

528

12.5
22.22
12.5
22.22

19.89
26.52
39.79
19.89
26.52
39.79
19.1
25.46
38.2
19.1
25.46
38.2

analyses are consistently located in the bottom flange at the webto-flange junction and flange tips respectively. It was therefore decided that the residual stress patterns across the bottom flange,
which was subjected to compressive actions during roller bending, would be used to investigate the influence of bending ratio and
original yield stress.
2.2. Influence of bending radius
The amount of cold work or plastic straining applied during
roller bending may affect the magnitude of the residual stresses.
For steel exhibiting a clear hardening stage, a decrease of the
bending ratio is expected to induce higher residual stresses. For
each steel section as presented in Table 1, the numerically obtained
maximum tensile and maximum compressive normalized residual
stresses in the bottom flange are displayed as a function of the
bending ratio in Fig. 5(left). It can bee seen that the bending ratio
has no clear influence on the extreme residual stresses within
the examined range of 12.5 R/h 39.79. Consequently a
residual stress model can be developed which is independent of
the bending radius, and applicable to a bending ratio range of
approximately 10 R/h 40.
Fig. 4. Normalized residual stresses in 18 roller bent wide flange sections.

0.3fy and tensile stresses at the web-to-flange junction ranging

from 0.4fy to 0.7fy . The web shows a large scatter when compared
to the stress characteristics in the flanges. Although consistent
trends from the web stresses cannot readily be observed, it can
be concluded that the upper part of the web is in tension with
an average maximum stress of approximately 0.3fy . The lower
part of the web is mainly subject to compression with an average
maximum stress of approximately 0.4fy . Steep stress gradients
are observed at the web-to-flange junctions, as reflected by the
large difference between the stress values in the top and bottom
of the web and in the middle of the top flange and bottom flange
respectively.
In Table 1 it can be seen that the numerical calculations comprise a wide range of bending radii and steel grades. For the development of a single residual stress model the influence of the
bending ratio and the yield stress of the original material on the
numerical residual stresses were studied first. It was observed that
the maximum tensile and compressive residual stresses from all 18

2.3. Influence of original yield stress

The yield stress of the original material may also affect the
magnitude of the residual stresses. Structural steel with a higher
yield stress prior to roller bending may have higher residual
stresses after bending when compared to steel with low yield
stress levels. Residual stress measurements published by Gardner
and Cruise [28] on press braked angles and cold-rolled box sections
have shown a clear relationship between material yield stress and
magnitude of residual stresses.
Fig. 5(right) shows the maximum tensile and compressive
residual stresses in the bottom flange versus the measured yield
stress of the material before roller bending. The residual stress
values are not normalized, in order to display the influence of the
yield stress on the magnitude of the residual stress.
3. Roller bent residual stress model for wide flange sections
Based on the numerically obtained roller bent residual stresses,
a model of these stresses for wide flange steel sections is suggested.
This proposal is intended to be generally applicable, independent

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Fig. 5. Normalized maximum tensile and compressive residual stresses in the bottom flange versus bending ratio (left) and maximum tensile and compressive residual
stresses in the bottom flange versus yield stress of original material (right).

(a) Dimensions.

(b) Residual stresses.

(c) Equilibrium of stress blocks in

web.

Fig. 6. Proposed residual stress model for roller bent wide flange steel sections.

of the bending ratio for the range of 10 R/h 40 (Section 2.2)

and linearly related to the magnitude of the original yield stress
for S235 and S355 steel sections (Section 2.3). The magnitudes and
pattern for the residual stress model are determined to best fit the
finite element results.
3.1. Residual stress pattern and magnitudes
The residual stress model is based on the numerically obtained
residual stresses as shown in Fig. 4 and the trend lines as shown in
Fig. 5 and is shown in Fig. 6.
A symmetric bi-linear stress pattern along the half bottom
flange is suggested with a maximum tensile stress value of 0.7fy
at the web-to-flange junction and 0.35fy compression at the flange
tip. These stress values are based on the gradient of the trend
lines as shown in Fig. 5. A somewhat larger compressive stress
value for the flange tips that shown in the trend line of Fig. 5
has been proposed, since numerical data could not be obtained at
the flange tips but at a distance away from the ends (integration
point location). Using the gradient of the trend line would therefore
result in an underestimation of the compressive stresses at the
flange tips.
For the top flange a linear stress gradient is suggested based
on a qualitative fit with numerical data, featured by 0.2fy tensile
stresses and 0.2fy compressive stresses at the flange tips and flange
center, respectively (Fig. 6(c)).
For the web two triangular stress blocks are suggested. The
tensile and compressive stress peak of the triangles are located at a
distance of 1/4h0 and 3/4h0 from the web-to-flange junction of the
top flange, respectively. The stress values are equal to zero at the
top and bottom of the web. The maximum tensile and compressive
residual stress values in the web are annotated by wrt and wrc

respectively and their magnitudes are governed by the internal

equilibrium requirement.
Equilibrium conditions for residual stresses consist of the axial
force, major moment and minor moment equilibrium requirement
as stated earlier by Lay and Ward [3] and Szalai and Papp [29].
Equilibrium about the minor bending axis is automatically satisfied
due to the symmetric pattern of the suggested residual stress
model about this axis. The bi-linear residual stress pattern in
the bottom flange yields a net tensile force, which is balanced
by residual stresses in the web, according to the equilibrium
requirements. The two unknown web stresses, wrt and wrc ,
can be obtained from the two remaining equilibrium equations:
the normal forces and the major bending moment requirement
Fig. 6(c). The equilibrium equations are simplified by neglecting the
fillets in the wide flange section.
Axial force (N ) and major moment (M ) equilibrium equations
can be set up by summing forces for all stress blocks and summing
the product of these normal forces and their distances to the center
of the top flange, as depicted in Fig. 6(c):

+
wrt
8
4

1
1
+
+
wrc
fy = 0
8
4

7
1 1
1
5
M =
btf h0 + tw
h0 + h0
wrt
80
8 6
4 12

1
7
1 5
+
h0
+ h0
wrt
fy = 0.
N =

80

btf + tw h0

12

(1)

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R.C. Spoorenberg et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 67 (2011) 9921000

Eq. (1) can be simplified into

wrt + wrc
fy = 0
8

1
7
1
h0 fy = 0,
M =
btf h0 + h0 tw
wrt + wrc
N =

80

btf + tw h0

80

(2)

and written in matrix notations:

N
M

3
8
= fy h0 tw
1
h0

3
8 wrt

1 wrc

h0

fy

btf

80

80

0
.
0

(3)

Solving (3) for wrt and wrc yields

wrt =

7btf
30h0 tw

fy ,

wrc =

14btf
30h0 tw

fy .

flange width b or section height h. Due to placement requirements

of the strain gauges, average values could not be obtained close
to the junction of the flanges and web. Similarly to the numerical
stress values, the experimental results were normalized with respect to the measured yield stress of the straight material (Table 1).
The proposed residual stress model agrees well with the measured
residual stress value for the HE 100A, HE 100B and HE 360B sections, although less coherence is found in the web of the IPE 360
series.
4.2. Comparison to numerical analyses

btf h0

997

(4)

With these values the residual stress model for roller bent wide
flange steel sections is complete.
3.2. Residual stress model features
From Eq. (4) it is clear that the requirement of internal
equilibrium renders the proposed model to be different per section
geometry. The residual stress values in the web are governed by
the ratio between the area of the flange and area of the web.
The proposed model is qualitatively identical for all wide flange
sections but the magnitude of the residual stresses in the web is
dependent on the geometry of the cross section.
Fig. 4 shows that the numerical residual stress pattern is
featured by a sharp stress gradient at the web-to-flange junctions
of the roller bent wide flange sections. This sharp stress gradient
has been approximated in the proposed residual stress model by a
so-called stress jump at the web-to-flange junctions (i.e. the stress
value at the top of the web or bottom of the web is different from
the stress value in the middle of the top flange or middle of the
bottom flange, respectively). A stress jump is a stress change over
an infinitesimal distance and can also be found in residual stress
models for welded sections, [20] (Fig. 3(b)). Modeling the large
stress gradients instead of the stress-jumps in the web-to-flange
junctions in a residual stress model would significantly complicate
the stress pattern in the web and improve its accuracy only
marginally as the pertaining section areas are extremely small.
The stress jump provides therefore a simplification to the residual
stress model and enhances the simplicity of the equilibrium
equations and ease of applicability when employed in numerical
models.
4. Discussion
4.1. Comparison to experiments
Residual stress measurements were performed on both straight
and roller bent sections using the sectioning method. Measurements taken from both sides of the flanges and the web were used
to obtain the average residual stress values. Residual stresses in
HE 100A, HE 360B and IPE 360 sections were published earlier
by Spoorenberg et al. [15]. A full overview of the averaged experimental results compared with the suggested residual stress
model is shown in Fig. 7. The averaged experimental results for
roller bent sections and the suggested residual stress model are
plotted against the location over the section normalized by the

The proposed residual stress model is based on the finite

element patterns and magnitudes from all wide flange sections
as summarized in Fig. 4 and the trend lines shown in Fig. 5.
However, in order to meet the internal equilibrium requirements,
the suggested model will be different for all wide flange steel
sections. The proposed residual stress model is therefore compared
to the finite element residual stresses in all 4 different section
types; see Fig. 8. A good correlation of results can be observed for
the HE 100A, HE 100B and HE 360B series but larger discrepancies
are found in the top flange of the IPE 360 series.
4.3. Comparison between existing hot-rolled and proposed roller bent
residual stress models
It was mentioned in Section 1.1.4 that compressive residual
stresses in the flange tips are detrimental to the resistance of
members susceptible to either flexural or lateral torsional buckling.
Compressive residual stresses in the flange tips reduce the flexural
stiffness during inelastic arch buckling and subsequently will cause
early collapse of the arch. A hot-rolled residual stress model is
featured by compressive stresses in all four flange tips, whereas
the proposed model displays only compressive stresses in the tips
of the bottom flange. From a qualitative comparison between the
hot-rolled model and the proposed roller bent model it can be
concluded that the proposed residual stress model for roller bent
wide flange steel sections will be more favorable to the resistance
of steel arches, when either failing by in-plane or out-of-plane
inelastic buckling.
4.4. Range of applicability residual stress model
Good coherence between the residual stress model and
experimental results for various roller bent wide flange sections
can be observed in Fig. 7. This allows the application of the residual
stress model to other wide flange sections that did not make
part of the experimental program. In addition, since the residual
stress model can be expressed as a function of the yield stress
of the straight material, it can be applied to other steel grades
(e.g. steel grade S275). Under the assumption that for bending
ratios R/h > 40 the required amount of cold work on the section
will be marginally smaller, the reduction in residual stresses will
be of minor influence. Application of the residual stress model
to roller bent arches with larger bending ratios than currently
investigated seems appropriate but is probably conservative.
5. Conclusions
After manufacturing wide flange steel sections by the hotrolling process, additional cold working such as roller bending
has a significant influence on the residual stress patterns.
Earlier publications by Spoorenberg et al. [15,16] demonstrate a
significant difference between residual stresses in hot-rolled and
roller bent wide flange sections. In this paper residual stresses
obtained from finite element analyses by Spoorenberg et al. [16]
have been summarized and normalized with respect to the yield
stress of the material before roller bending to develop and present

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Fig. 7. Normalized measured averaged residual stresses and proposed residual stress model.

a residual stress model. It was found that the bending ratio does
not influence the magnitudes of the residual stresses, allowing for
a residual stress model representing all examined bending radii
for 10 R/h 40. The residual stresses were found to be
linearly dependent on the yield stress of the original material and a
single normalized residual stress model could therefore represent
all roller bent sections, for steel grades S235 and S355.
Based on a best fit of the finite element data, the proposed
linear stress gradient along the width of the top flange (the
flange that is plastically elongated in longitudinal direction during
roller bending) is featured by stress magnitudes of 0.2fy in
tension and 0.2fy in compression at the flange tips and flange
center respectively. The residual stress in the bottom flange (the
flange that is plastically shortened in longitudinal direction during

roller bending) can be represented by a bi-linear pattern with

a maximum compressive stress of 0.35fy at the flange tip, zero
stress at the quarter points of the flange width and a maximum
tension of 0.70fy at the web-to-flange junction. The residual stress
pattern over the height of the web can be represented by two
triangular stress blocks: tensile stress in the upper region of the
web near the top flange and compressive stress in the lower region.
The maximum value for the two zones can be determined from
internal equilibrium which results in 0.20.4fy for tension and
0.40.8fy for compression residual stresses. The residual stress
model was compared to experimental and numerical residual
stress measurements and good agreement was observed. The
suggested residual stress model can be implemented in finite
element models with beam or shell elements to assess its influence

Author's personal copy

R.C. Spoorenberg et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 67 (2011) 9921000

999

Fig. 8. Normalized computed residual stresses and proposed residual stress model.

on the inelastic buckling response of steel arches. In view of the

detrimental influence of compressive residual stress at the flange
tips it is expected that the proposed residual stress model will
yield higher resistances compared to finite element analyses using
models for hot-rolled residual stresses when investigating inelastic
arch buckling.
Acknowledgements
This research was carried out under the project number
MC1.06262 in the framework of the Research Program of the
Materials innovation institute M2i (www.m2i.nl).

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