Experimental study on critical loads of thin-walled angles under axial compression

The buckling mode and method to calculate the critical load of the thin-walled angle under axial compression was investigated by analyzing the results of experiments, buckling theory, codes, and the simulation. The critical loads of thin-walled angles were obtained from experiments. The first order eigenvalue of buckling load was analyzed by finite element software ANSYS. The classical linear elastic theory, the elastic buckling theory considering large deformation and nonlinear terms, codes at home and aboard were studied. Results of these methods were compared and analyzed. It's found that the buckling mode is flexural-torsional. The buckling load of the classical linear elastic theory is close to that in the experiments and simulation, which can be the reference of the critical load. Meanwhile, the codes for design of steel structures is conservative as it takes the initial imperfection and plasticity of the material into consideration. © 2016, Editorial Office of Journal of Building Structures. All right reserved.