Resistance of cold-formed built-up stainless steel columns – Part II: Numerical simulation

In parallel with an experimental investigation of the flexural buckling behaviour of built-up stainless steel columns presented in the accompanying paper (Dobrić et al., submitted for publication), a detailed Finite Element Analysis (FEA) has been performed to simulate the experiment and identify the key factors affecting the buckling response. The FEA entailed realistic geometry, measured geometric imperfections and material properties of the specimens. Very good agreement was obtained between the experiment and FEA, which proved the capability of the computational approach to replicate experimental results and predict ultimate buckling loads. In the absence of explicit design rules for flexural buckling resistance of stainless steel closely spaced built-up members, the experimental results were compared with design predictions according to the existing European Standard and American Specification for carbon steel structures. The findings indicate that the mentioned design standards may be very conservative regarding the buckling resistance of stainless steel built-up members; this under-prediction may be associated with the impact assessment of chord slenderness and interconnection stiffness on the buckling response. The main purpose of this research is to establish a qualitative data base reliable for the further quantitative numerical parameter analysis and for the development of new design rules for compressed stainless steel cold-formed built-up members.