Inelastic bifurcation of cold-formed singly symmetric columns

The paper describes a technique for determining the overall flexural and flexural–torsional bifurcation loads of locally buckled cold-formed channel columns. The method of analysis uses an inelastic geometric non-linear finite strip local buckling analysis to determine the flexural and torsional tangent rigidities of a locally buckled section. These tangent rigidities are substituted into the flexural and flexural–torsional bifurcation equations to calculate the inelastic overall buckling loads. The members are assumed to be geometrically perfect in the overall sense but can include geometric imperfections and yielding in the local mode. The bifurcation analysis is applied to cold-formed plain channel columns. The bifurcation loads and failure modes are compared with tests of fixed-ended columns and shown to be in good agreement with the tests. The effect of yielding is highlighted in the paper.