Cold-Formed Ferritic Stainless Steel Tubular Sections under End-One-Flange Loading Condition

This paper presents experimental and numerical investigations of cold-formed ferritic stainless steel tubular sections under End-One-Flange (EOF) loading condition. A series of web crippling tests was conducted on cold-formed square and rectangular hollow sections of ferritic stainless steel grade EN 1.4003. The web crippling test results were used for the verification of the finite element (FE) model. Upon verification, a parametric study was performed thereafter. The codified web crippling design provisions in American, Australian/New Zealand and European standards for stainless steel structures were assessed. Improved web crippling design rules are proposed for cold-formed ferritic stainless steel tubular sections under EOF loading condition through modifying the design rules of the North American Specification and Direct Strength Method. It is shown that the modified web crippling design rules are able to provide accurate and reliable predictions