Steel tubular structures are susceptible to welding defects, cracking defects and environmental corrosion, which can negatively affect the stability and reliability of structure. This study tested the axial compression performance of twenty-six square steel tubular stubs with localized penetration damage simulated by artificial notch, considering the influence of notch length, orientation, and position. The test results showed that the failure mode of the specimens was dominated by the local buckling along the direction of the notch axis. The failure mode of the specimen with vertical notch showed notch opening, while those with horizontal notch showed notch closing, resulting in the secondary peak value in the load-displacement curve. The existence of local penetration damage reduced the ultimate strength and ductility of the tubular stubs. Compared to the ultimate strength of the specimens with middle notch, those with corner notch were weakened more, up to 27 %. Furthermore, the effects of notch dimension, position, orientation, and tube wall thickness on the axial bearing capacity of square steel tubular stubs are discussed by using a validated finite element model. Owing to the analysis, the ultimate strength of the stubs is reduced by increasing notch length, width and depth, whereas the reduction effect tends to be weakened as the notch orientation angle increases. The notch located in the corner is the most unfavorable for the axial compression performance of the square steel tubular stubs. A semi-empirical formula for evaluating the ultimate strength of square steel tubular stubs with local penetration damage is proposed by introducing the strength reduction factor. An artificial neural network-based ultimate strength prediction model is developed that can consider the effects of wide-range parameters, achieving high accuracy.
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