• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.509-526
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• 2018

The direct strength method adopted by the AISI Standard and AS/NZS 4600 is an advanced design method meant to substitute the effective width method for the design of cold-formed steel structural members accounting for local instability of thin plate elements. It was proven that the design strength formula for the direct strength method could predict the ultimate strength of medium strength steel welded section compressive and flexural members with local buckling reasonably. This paper focuses on the modification of the direct strength formula for the application to high strength and high performance steel welded section columns which have the nominal yield stress higher than 460 MPa and undergo local buckling, overall buckling or their interaction. The resistance of high strength steel welded H and Box section columns calculated by the proposed direct strength formulae were validated by comparison with various compression test results, FE results, and predictions by existing specifications.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.355-374
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• 2006

Thin walled steel bridge-piers/columns are vulnerable to damage, when subjected to earthquake excitations. Local buckling, global buckling or interaction between local and global buckling usually is the cause of this damage, which results in significant strength reduction of the member. In this study new innovative design concepts, "thin-walled corrugated steel columns" and "thin-walled cellular steel columns" are presented, which allow the column to undergo large plastic deformations without significant strength reduction; hence dissipate energy under cyclic loading. It is shown that, compared with the conventional designs, circular and stiffened box sections, these new innovative concepts might results in cost-effective designs, with improved buckling and ductility properties. Using a finite element model, that takes the non-linear material properties into consideration, it is shown that the corrugations will act like longitudinal stiffeners that are supporting each other, thus improving the buckling behavior and allowing for reduction of the overall wall thickness of the column.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.505-514
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• 2009

This paper describes the structural behavior and the ultimate strengths of circular hollow steel (CHS) sections based on a series of compression tests. The ultimate strengths of CHS section columns are mainly dependent on both diameter-thickness ratio and column slenderness ratio. For the CHS sections with a high diameter-thickness ratio, an elastic or an inelastic local buckling may occur prior to the overall buckling, and it may decrease the column strength. Test sections were fabricated from SM400 steel plate of 2.8 mm and 3.2 mm in thickness and were tested to failure. The diameter-thickness ratios of the test sections ranged from 45 to 170 to investigate the effect of local buckling on the column strength. The compression tests indicated that the CHS sections of lower diameter-thickness ratio than the yield limit in the current design specifications showed an inelastic local buckling and a significant post-buckling strength in the local mode. Their ultimate stresses were larger than the nominal yield stress. It was known that the allowable stresses of the sections predicted by the Korean Highway Bridge Design Specifications (2005) were too conservative in comparison with test results. The Direct Strength Method which was newly developed was calibrated for application to the CHS sections by the experimental and numerical results. The Direct Strength Method proposed can predict properly the ultimate strength of CHS section columns whether a local buckling and an overall buckling occur nearly simultaneously or not.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.35-47
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• 2005

This paper presents the results of a series of tests carried out on hollow and concrete-filled coldformed steel sections subjected to axial and bending forces. The effects of eccentricity ratio and strength of in-fill on the behaviour of these sections were studied. A total of forty-eight medium sized columns and six beams were tested to failure. Extensive measurements of material properties, strains, axial shortening and lateral deflection were carried out. Interaction of local and overall buckling was observed in the tests. Failure mode observations were local buckling coupled with overall buckling. A description of the specially fabricated end fixtures for applying eccentric loading to the columns and to simulate pinned end condition is also presented. The experimental results of hollow columns are compared with the existing Indian, British and American codes of practice and the results of concrete-filled columns are compared with EC4 recommendations. It is seen that in the case of hollow columns predictions based on British and American codes of practice and in the case of concrete-filled columns predictions based on EC4 recommendations agree reasonably well with the experimental results. From the experiments it is seen that the provision of in-fill substantially increases the ultimate load carrying capacity of the order of one and a half to two times and the increase in strength of the in-filled concrete from a low grade concrete of compressive strength 24.94 MPa to a high grade concrete of compressive strength 33.26 MPa increases the ultimate load carrying capacity by one and a half times irrespective of the eccentricity of loading.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.85 no.6
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• pp.825-835
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• 2023

The effective buckling length factor is an important parameter in the elastic buckling analysis of steel structures. The present article aims at developing a new method that allows the determination of the buckling factor values for frames. The novelty of the method is that it considers the interaction between the bracing and the elastic supports for asymmetrical frames in particular. The approach consists in isolating a critical column within the frame and evaluating the rotational and translational stiffness of its restraints to obtain the critical buckling load. This can be achieved by introducing, through a dimensionless parameter 𝜙_i, the effects of coupling between the axial loading and bending stiffness of the columns, on the classical stability functions. Subsequently, comparative, and parametric studies conducted on several frames are presented for assessing the influence of geometry, loading, bracing, and support conditions of the frame columns on the value of the effective buckling length factor K. The results show that the formulas recommended by different approaches can give rather inaccurate values of K, especially in the case of asymmetric frames. The expressions used refer solely to local stiffness distributions, and not to the overall behavior of the structure.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.1299-1319
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• 2015

This paper presents a detailed parametric study, conducted using finite element tools to cover a range of several geometric and material parameters, on the behaviour of thin-walled partially encased composite (PEC) columns. The PEC columns studied herein are composed of thin-walled built-up H-shaped steel sections with concrete infill cast between the flanges. Transverse links are provided between the opposing flanges to improve resistance to local buckling. The parametric study is confined to eccentrically-loaded columns subjected to major axis bending only. The parameters that were varied include the overall column slenderness ratio (L/d), load eccentricity ratio (e/d), link spacing-to-depth ratio (s/d), flange plate slenderness ratio (b/t) and concrete compressive strength ($f_{cu}$). The overall column slenderness ratio was chosen to be the primary variable with values of 5, 10 and 15. Other parameters were varied within each case of L/d ratio. The effects of the selected parameters on the behaviour of PEC columns were studied with respect to the failure mode, peak axial load, axial load versus average axial strain response, axial load versus lateral displacement response, moment versus lateral displacement behaviour and the axial load-moment interaction diagram. The results of the parametric study are presented in the paper and the influences of each of the parameters investigated are discussed.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.57-64
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• 2021

This paper conducted a comparative analysis of the shear buckling characteristics of trapezoidal and sinusoidal corrugated steel plates considering of their initial imperfection. Initial imperfection refers to the state where the shape of the corrugated plate is initially not perfect. As such, an initially imperfect shape was assumed using the eigen buckling mode. To calculate the buckling stress of corrugated steel plates, the linear buckling analysis used a boundary condition which was applied to the plate buckling analysis. For the comparison of trapezoidal and sinusoidal corrugation, the shape parameters were assumed using the case where the length and slope of each corrugation were the same, and the initial imperfection was considered to be from 0.1% to 5% based on the length of the steel plate. Here, for the buckling analysis, ANSYS, a commercial FEA program, was used. From the results of buckling analysis, the effect of overall initial imperfection showed that the larger the initial imperfection, the lower the buckling stress. However, in the very thin model, interaction or local buckling was dominant in the perfect shape, and in this case, the buckling stress did not decrease. Besides, the sinusoidal model showed higher buckling stress than the trapezoidal one, and the two corrugation shapes decreased in a similar way.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.497-516
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• 2014

The ultimate carrying capacity of axially loaded welded square box section members made of medium and high strength steels (nominal yield stresses varying from 345 MPa to 460 MPa), with large width-to-thickness ratios ranging from 35 to 70, is analyzed by finite element method (FEM). At the same time, the numerical results are compared with the predicted results using Direct Strength Method (DSM), modified DSM and Effective Yield Strength Method (EYSM). It shows that curve a, rather than curve b recommended in Code for design of steel structures GB50017-2003, should be used to check the local-overall interaction buckling strength of welded square section columns fabricated from medium and high strength steels when using DSM, modified DSM and EYSM. Despite all this, EYSM is conservative. Compared to EYSM and modified DSM, DSM provides a better prediction of the ultimate capacities of welded square box compression members with large width-thickness ratios over a wide range of width-thickness ratios, slenderness ratios and steel grades. However, for high strength steels (nominal yield strength greater than 460 MPa), the numerical and existent experimental results indicate that DSM overestimates the load-carrying capacities of the columns with width-thickness ratio smaller than 45 and slenderness ratio less than 80. Further, for the purpose of making it suitable for a wider scope, DSM has been modified (called proposed modified DSM). The proposed modified DSM is in excellent agreement with the numerical and existing experimental results.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.231-241
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• 2015

The direct strength method (DSM) has been adopted by the NAS (2004) and AS/NZS 4600 (2005) for the design of cold-formed steel members. The method can be successfully applied to the design of welded steel members. This paper reviews the development of the DSM for welded steel structural members. The design strength formulae for welded section columns and beams for the DSM are based on the test results performed on welded H-section, C-section, circular and rectangular hollow section columns, plate girders and stiffened plates. The comparison between the design strength of welded sections predicted by the DSM and that estimated by existing specifications is also provided. The comparison verifies that the DSM can properly predict the compressive, flexural and shear strength of welded section columns and beams with the interaction between local and overall buckling.