Web crippling resistances of cold-formed stainless steel sections: A proposal for EN 1993-1-4

Abstract

The current EN 1993-1-4 does not have supplementary web crippling design provision for cold-formed stainless steel sections under local transverse forces. Therefore, designers are generally referring to the guidance in EN 1993-1-3 for cold-formed carbon steel sections. Over the past decades, quite a substantial number of tests have been carried out worldwide to study the behaviour of cold-formed stainless steel sections undergoing web crippling, among which the majority of the data were focused on C-sections as well as square and rectangular hollow sections (SHS and RHS). To this end, tailor-made design provisions for these stainless steel sections can be developed. In this study, up-to-date web crippling test data on cold-formed stainless steel C-sections and SHS/RHS were firstly collected. The applicability of the web crippling design provisions as per the new version of EN 1993-1-3 to stainless steel sections was assessed. New design provisions for cold-formed stainless steel unstiffened C-sections (unlipped channels), stiffened C-sections (lipped channels) as well as SHS and RHS under local transverse forces are proposed in this study. The newly developed web crippling design provisions for C-sections and SHS/RHS were derived based upon reliability requirements as regulated in EN 1990 using available experimental data reported on austenitic, ferritic and duplex stainless steel types of various grades. The proposed design provisions for stainless steel sections have been made in line with the development of the new version of EN 1993-1-3 provisions and therefore are recommended to EN 1993-1-4 for calculating web crippling resistances under local transverse forces.