Stainless steel SHS and RHS beam-columns

Presented research deals with stainless steel slender square hollow and rectangular hollow section (SHS and RHS) members loaded by combination of uniaxial bending moment and compressive axial force. Four tests of eccentrically loaded stainless steel pin-ended columns were conducted. Data obtained from the tests were used for the numerical model validation. A comprehensive numerical parametric study was made using finite element software Abaqus employing geometrically and materially non-linear analysis with imperfections (GMNIA). All three main stainless steel groups were considered in study, namely austenitic, ferritic and duplex. The investigated variables were mainly cross-section slenderness, member slenderness and ratio between compressive force and bending moment. Only uniform bending moment along the member length was considered. Based on the numerical parametric study results a new design approach for stainless steel SHS and RHS beam-columns has been derived. It is described and evaluated in this paper together with recently published design procedure developed by Zhao.