Experimental study on web crippling of stainless steel built-up box sections under interior-two-flange

Abstract

This report presents an experimental study on stainless steel built-up sections subjected to web crippling failure. A total of nine austenitic stainless steel grade 304 built-up box sections with different thickness and screw group arrangements of one-screw group and two-screw group, underwent web crippling tests under the Interior-Two-Flange (ITF) loading condition. Initial geometric imperfection test was carried out to establish the geometric irregularities of the specimen. The material properties of the testing specimen were then established through tensile coupon test. The corresponding test machine and set-up, experimental procedures, load-deformation curves, and ultimate loads were reported thoroughly. The experimental ultimate loadings obtained (Pu,test) and the theoretical ultimate loads (PEC3 and PAS/NZS) obtained from three different steel design codes, namely (i) EN 1993-1-3: Eurocode 3: Design Steel Structures; (ii) AISI S100: North American Specification for the Design of Cold-Formed Steel Structural Members; (iii) AS/NZS 4600: Australian/New Zealand Standards were completed. Based on the comparison study, PEC3 is slightly more conservative as compared to PAS/NZS. Both AISI S100 and AS/NZS 4600 design specifications provided an unconservative prediction. Therefore, further studies are required to enhance the quality of the design codes.