Performance of cold-formed stainless steel tubular columns at elevated temperatures

This paper presents a finite element model (FEM) to assess the structural performance of stainless steel tubular columns at elevated temperatures. Non-linear finite element analysis (FEA) was carried out on fixed-ended stainless steel columns having rectangular and square hollow sections. The column strengths, failure modes and load-axial shortening curves of the columns were obtained from the FEA. The FEM was verified against experimental results. An extensive parametric study was carried out using the verified FEM to study the effects of cross-section geometries, plate thickness, effective column length and temperature on the strengths and failure modes of the columns. Based on the results of the parametric study, two design rules were proposed. Reliability analysis was also performed to assess the validity of the proposed design rules.