Compressive Strength of Solid Round Steel Bars

Abstract

In the era of modernization, solid round steel bars are widely used in communication towers, which play a vital role in today’s world. Solid steel round bars are used as leg members, diagonal members, and horizontal members of a communication tower. Canadian Standard for Antenna towers and Antenna Supporting Structures, CAN/CSA-S37-01, specifies empirical expressions for the compressive strength of solid rounds based on the well-known Structural Stability Research Council column strength curves for nonsolid-round members as well as on the results from an experimental investigation on the compressive resistance of solid rounds carried out back to 1965. This paper provides a summary of the available literature on the compressive strength of solid rounds. Also, the results of the recently tested six large solid round bars at Ryerson University, Toronto, are presented. Correlation between the results from these tests and the current practice for the design of solid rounds is investigated. It is expected that the results from this paper direct the attention of code writers to more economical and safe empirical expressions for the ultimate compressive resistance of solid rounds. This would assist the practicing engineers in the evaluation of the load-carrying capacity of existing antenna towers since even a small increase in strength for live load can make the difference between demolishing a tower or leaving it in service.