Strength of Cold-Formed Stainless-Steel Corrugated Rectangular Sections under Compression

Provision of intermediate stiffening is an effective method to improve the strength of cold-formed steel compression members without having to increase the outer dimensions of the section. As cold-formed sections can be easily produced in various cross-section profiles, the effect of intermediate stiffening on ultimate load carrying capacity and behavior of structural elements need to be determined. In this study columns with Cold-Formed Stainless-Steel and Corrugated Rectangular Hollow Sections are studied numerically using Finite Element analysis. The column simulation is conducted using ABAQUS software including material nonlinearity and performed with the Static Riks procedure. The objective is to study how providing stiffening in the form of corrugations influences the buckling behavior of these columns. Columns for a range of slenderness ratio with varying cross-section parameters were modelled and compared to identify the influencing parameters. The study showed that buckling strength of columns can be significantly increased by providing corrugations. Corrugations effectively resisted local buckling in columns even with low slenderness ratio. The parameters influencing the buckling behavior are identified as cross-section aspect ratio, corrugation height, corrugation width and minimum radius of gyration of the cross-section. Buckling curves are placed for the corrugated sections based on the numerical analysis, and in relation to the buckling curves provided in design standards. On comparing them with the predictions by Euro Code (EN 1993-1-4 (2006)), it was observed that Euro Code predictions are conservative, which is also seen from the buckling curves shown for the corrugated sections.