Eccentric compressive distortional buckling and design of non-symmetric cold-formed angular column with complex edges

Abstract In recent years, cold-formed steel has been widely utilized in emergency construction for high strength and installation efficiency. In this paper, the eccentric compressive behaviour and design method of non-symmetric cold-formed angular columns with complex edges were investigated. Eight specimens were tested under eccentric compression, and the ultimate loads and buckling modes were obtained. A detailed finite element model was developed and verified through a comparative analysis of the finite element analysis with the experimental test results. Then, parametric analysis on the eccentric compression capacity of cold-formed angular column with complex edges was performed, and the effects of the specimen length, specimen thickness and eccentric distance on the ultimate load capacity of the eccentric members of this section were evaluated. An equation for calculating the load-bearing capacity of non-symmetric cold-formed angular column with complex edges under eccentric compression was derived using the direct strength method. The theoretical design method was verified through a comparison of the theoretical results with the experimental and numerical results, and the proposed method was found to be accurate and conservative to some extent. This paper revealed the eccentric compression behaviour and provides a practical method for design of the cold-formed non-symmetric angular columns, and the proposed method will be useful in the design and construction of cold-formed steel structures.