Design of cold-formed stainless steel sections with single web subjected to web crippling

Abstract

An experimental investigation of cold-formed stainless steel hollow sections subjected to web crippling is presented in this paper. Tests were conducted on square and rectangular hollow sections of austenitic stainless steel type 304. Tensile and compression coupon tests were performed to obtain the longitudinal tension and transverse compression material properties. The web crippling tests were conducted under two loading conditions for End-Two-Flange (ETF) and Interior-Two-Flange (ITF) specified in the current American Specification and Australian/New Zealand Standard for cold-formed stainless steel structures. The test strengths obtained from this study and the test strengths of stainless steel lipped channel sections under End-One-Flange (EOF) and Interior-One-Flange (IOF) loading conditions conducted by other researchers are compared with the design strengths obtained using the current American Specification, Australian/New Zealand Standard and European Code for cold-formed stainless steel structures. In addition, the test strengths are also compared with the design strengths obtained using the unified web crippling equation as specified in the North American Specification for cold-formed carbon steel structural members. A unified web crippling equation for cold-formed stainless steel sections with single web is proposed in this paper. It is shown that the proposed web crippling equation is safe and reliable.