Buckling Performance of Irregular Section Cold-Formed Steel Columns under Axially Concentric Loading

This paper presents experimental investigation and
finite element analysis on buckling behavior of irregular section coldformed
steel columns under axially concentric loading. For the
experimental study, four different sections of columns were tested to
investigate effect of stiffening and width-to-thickness ratio on
buckling behavior. For each of the section, three lengths of 230, 950
and 1900 mm. were studied representing short, intermediate long and
long columns, respectively. Then, nonlinear finite element analyses
of the tested columns were performed. The comparisons in terms of
load-deformation response and buckling mode show good agreement
and hence the FEM models were validated. Parametric study of
stiffening element and thickness of 1.0, 1.15, 1.2, 1.5, 1.6 and 2.0
mm. was analyzed. The test results showed that stiffening effect pays
a large contribution to prevent distortional mode. The increase in wall
thickness enhanced buckling stress beyond the yielding strength in
short and intermediate columns, but not for the long columns.

• Chayanon Hansapinyo

• Buckling behavior
• Irregular section
• Cold-formed steel
• Concentric loading.

[1] Young, B. and Chen, J. (2008). “Column Tests of Cold-formed Steel
non Symmetric Lipped Angle Section”, Journal of Constructional Steel
Research, 64: 808-815.
[2] Narayanan, S. and Mahendran, M. (2003). “Ultimate capacity of
innovation cold-formed steel columns”, Journal of constructional steel
research, 59: 480-508.
[3] Standards Australia. (1996). Australian/ New Zealand Standard
AS/NZS4600. Cold formed steel structures. Sydney.
[4] Ellobody, E. (2007). “Buckling analysis of high strength stainless steel
stiffened and unstiffened slender hollow section columns”, Journal of
Constructional Steel Research, 63: 145-155.
[5] American Iron and Steel Institute. (2001). North American Specification
for the Design of Cold-Formed Steel Structure Member. Washington,
DC : American Iron and Steel Institute
[6] AS/NZS. Cold-formed stainless steel structures. Australian/New
Zealand Standard, AS/NZS 4673:2001. Sydney (Australia): Standards
Australia; 2001.
[7] EC3. Eurocode 3: Design of steel structures — Part 1.4: General rules
— Supplementary rules for stainless steels. European Committee for
Standardization, ENV 1993-1-4. Brussels: CEN; 1996.
[8] Freitas, A.M.S., Freites, M.S.R and Souza, F. T. (2005). “Analysis of
steel storage rack columns”, Journal of Constructional Steel Research,
61: 1135-1146.
[9] Nawikkawanit, O. and Hansapinyo, C. (2010) “Dynamic Behavior of
Electronic Cabinet” Third International Conference on Geoinformation
Technology for Natural Disaster Management & Rehabilitation,
GIT4NDM 2010, October 19-20, 2010, Chiang Mai, Thailand.