Local Buckling of One-Side Elastically Restrained Thin-Walled Cross-Section Wall Under Longitudinal Stress Variation

In cold-formed thin-walled cross-sections, complex phenomena, related to local and distortional buckling of slender walls containing edge fold stiffeners, occur. In order to determine the design resistance of such a cross-section in the post-buckling range, it is necessary to determine the critical stress of local buckling for individual walls. On this basis, the corresponding effective widths are determined. Subsequently, the distortional buckling effect is taken into account, typically by reducing the thickness of the substitute cross-section of the stiffener.

The paper presents approximation formulas of plate buckling coefficients (k*) that are used to calculate critical local buckling stress for technically crucial stress distributions. The full range of variation of the index of elastic fixity of the longitudinal edge of the thin-walled cross-section was considered. The coefficients were determined for a more accurate, relative to Eurocode 3, computational model. Both the effect of reciprocal elastic restraint of component walls of the cross-section and the effect of longitudinal stress variation, which occurs in transversely bent beams, were taken into account.