Web crippling behaviour of cold-formed duplex stainless steel tubular sections at elevated temperatures

This paper reports a numerical investigation of cold-formed high strength stainless steel square and rectangular hollow sections subjected to web crippling at elevated temperatures. Finite element analysis was conducted on cold-formed high strength austenitic and duplex stainless steel material. Four loading conditions specified in the American Specification and Australian/New Zealand Standard for cold-formed stainless steel structures were investigated in the numerical study. A non-linear finite element model which includes geometric and material non-linearities was developed and verified against experimental results. It was shown that the finite element model closely predicted the web crippling strengths and failure modes of the tested specimens under the four loading conditions. Hence, parametric study was carried out to investigate the web crippling behaviour of cold-formed high strength stainless steel square and rectangular hollow sections at elevated temperatures. The web crippling strengths predicted from the finite element analysis were compared with the design strengths obtained using the American, Australian/New Zealand and European specifications for stainless steel structures by substituting the reduced material properties in the current web crippling design equations. A unified web crippling equation for cold-formed high strength stainless steel square and rectangular hollow sections at elevated temperatures is proposed. It is demonstrated that the web crippling strength obtained using the proposed equation is safe and reliable using reliability analysis. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.