Flexural buckling resistance of cold-formed HSS hollow section members

Abstract

The application range of the current EN 1993-1-1 [1] for column buckling resistance determination is limited for steel materials up to the steel grade of S460. The EN 1993-1-12 [2] gives design rules for materials up to steel grade of S700. The stability failure of HSS steel structures is very important in the design, because due to the higher yield strength smaller cross sections can be used, which might be more sensitive for stability failure. According to the previous research results, the global buckling behavior of HSS and NSS columns can be significantly different, however these differences are not considered in the Eurocode based design process. The purpose of the current research is to study the column buckling behavior of HSS cold-formed hollow section columns based on previous and current experimental investigations and based on numerical simulations. This paper focuses on the effect of the different material properties, imperfections and residual stresses on the global buckling behavior of HSS members and to give design proposals for the applicable column buckling curves for steel grades between (S420) S500 and S960.