Experimental investigation of inelastic buckling of built-up steel columns

This paper experimentally investigated the buckling capacity of built-up steel columns mainly, Cruciform Columns (CC) and Side-to-Side (SS) columns fabricated from two Universal Beam (UB) sections. A series of nine experimental tests comprised of three UB sections, three CC sections and three SS sections with different lengths were tested to failure to measure the ultimate axial capacity of each column section. The lengths used for each category of columns were 1.8, 2.0, and 2.2 m with slenderness ratios ranging from 39-105. The measured buckling loads of the tested specimens were compared with the predicted ultimate axial capacity using Eurocode 3, AISC LRFD, and BS 5959-1. It was observed that the failure modes of the specimens included flexural buckling, local buckling and flexural-torsional buckling. The results showed that the ultimate axial capacity of the tested cruciform and side-by-side columns were higher than the code predicted design values by up to 20%, with AISC LRFD design values being the least conservative and the Eurocode 3 design values being the most conservative. This study has concluded that cruciform column and side-to-side welded flange columns using universal beam sections are efficient built-up sections that have larger ultimate axial load capacity, larger stiffness with saving in the weight of steel used compared to its equivalent universal beam counterpart.