Load-carrying capacities of cold-formed steel cut stub columns with lipped C-section

Cutting roll-formed steel lipped C-sections may produce different extent of cross section distortion along the lengths of the sections and may lead to additional initial geometric imperfections. Ten stub columns cut from two different sections were tested under axial compression. Flanges of the stub columns experienced distortional mode of failure, whereas the webs showed signs of local buckling failures. Ultimate compressive strengths obtained from the test results were 75–77% of the strengths estimated based on BS5950:Part 5. This indicates that geometric imperfections caused by cutting may significantly reduce the ultimate strength of stub columns.