Buckling behaviour of stainless steel angle stub column

Abstract

An investigation on the ultimate load capacity of stainless steel angle hot-rolled stub column is presented in this report. Both experimental and numerical studies were carried out to investigate the buckling behaviour of members subjected to axial compression. Stub column tests were conducted on ten specimens of three grades of Austenitic stainless steel angle hot-rolled section (EN1.4307, EN1.4404, EN1.4571). The material properties of the specimens were obtained from the tensile coupon tests while initial geometric imperfection measurements were conducted using a calibrated electric guideway.

Finite Element Analysis ABAQUS modelled a total of sixty angle stainless steel section with two varying parameters: the width and the thickness to verify against the experimental results obtained. Three different width (75mm, 100mm, 125mm) and twenty selected thickness which are good representation of the different slenderness ratio formed the sixty angle section modelled.

The test strengths from both the experimental data and the numerical modelling were used to evaluation the prediction of strength for existing three design codes: Eurocode 3, Direct Strength Method and American Society of Civil Engineers Specification for the Design of Cold-Formed Stainless Steel Structural Members. It was demonstrated that the predicted strengths from the Direct Strength Method were the closest to the actual test strength; nonetheless, all three codes are conservative in their prediction of the actual axial compression bearing capacity of stainless steel angle section.