Investigation of local buckling behavior of web perforated plain channel stub columns

As a sustainable material, cold-formed steel (CFS) is increasingly popular in structural components of buildings and industrial storage racks. The plain channel sections having a flange stiffened web element and unstiffened flange elements are prominently used as compression members in CFS systems. These elements are likely to undergo local buckling under compressive loading. The openings or closely spaced perforations along the longitudinal direction of the web for serviceability requirements on buildings and beam level adjustment requirements on storage racks lead to additional complications to the local buckling. Although the Effective Width Method and Direct Strength Method rationally cover the buckling behavior of plain channel sections, the influence of height-to-width ratio with perforations is not effectively accounted for in the design. Limited research details are available in the literature for the web perforations of lipped channels or rack sections. However, these sections do not have unstiffened flanges, where the unstiffened flanges can be more vulnerable to local buckling, e.g., plain channels. The web perforations also make the web more vulnerable to local buckling. This article examines the local buckling behavior of plain channel sections with the influence of web perforations through systematic experimental and comprehensive numerical studies. The influencing parameters of the cross-section geometry are assessed through the principal component analysis (PCA) to understand its correlation with local buckling. The PCA results shed light on mandatory parameters for the elastic critical local buckling load calculation and/or nominal local buckling strength prediction of the plain channel section.