Post-buckling behaviour and DSM design of web-stiffened lipped channel columns with distortional and local mode interaction

This paper examines the design and load-carrying capacity of fixed-ended web-stiffened lipped channel columns eroded by mode interaction behaviour combined with distortional and local deformations. Initially, the paper presents the results of an experimental investigation of compressive tests on web-stiffened lipped channel columns fabricated from cold-formed mild steel with a thickness of 1.50 mm, which is aimed at determining their failure load-carrying capacity; the experimental investigation also aims to provide experimental evidence of the occurrence of such coupling phenomena concerning distortional and local modes, namely, local-distortional interaction and distortional-local interactive failures. Then, the paper examines the ultimate strength data of experimental columns, both reported in this paper and collected from the literature, and concludes that the current direct strength method (DSM) provides very unsafe predictions concerning such a detrimental interaction nature. Next, two DSM-based design approaches, namely, the nominal strength against local-distortional (NLD) and distortional-local (NDL) procedures, are presented and evaluated on the basis of all available experimental ultimate strength data. Finally, proposals and design considerations based on the DSM-shape for the thin-walled cold-formed steel sections, which fail in mixed modes of distortional and local buckling, are presented.