Web Crippling Capacity of Cold-Formed Stainless Steel SHS and RHS

Abstract

This paper investigates the ultimate capacities of domestic cold-formed stainless steel square and rectangular hollow sections (SHS and RHS) undergoing web crippling. The finite element (FE) software Abaqus was employed during the investigation. It verifies the validity of FE models against experimental results available in the literature and performs an extensive parametric study comprised of 224 FE analyses to obtain the web crippling capacities of cold-formed stainless steel SHS and RHS, considering various materials, cross-sectional dimensions, bearing lengths and loading conditions in the parametric study. Based on the obtained FE results, the applicability of existing web crippling design provisions to domestic cold-formed stainless steel SHS and RHS is evaluated. The results indicate that the technical code of cold-formed steel structures (exposure draft) cannot be used for the studied cold-formed stainless steel SHS and RHS. On the other hand, it is shown that the American Specification SEI/ASCE 8-22 and proposed direct strength method (DSM) can lead to safe and accurate design predictions. Therefore, the SEI/ASCE 8-22 and DSM can be used to predict the capacities of domestic cold-formed stainless steel SHS and RHS undergoing web crippling.

Keywords

• stainless steel
• cold-formed steel
• web crippling
• local bearing
• design method