Resistance of Members to Flexural Buckling According to Eurocode 3 : - Focus on Imperfections 

Abstract: This work focuses mainly on the resistance of members to flexural buckling according to Eurocode 3. The work provides the mathematical backgrounds to the equations and buckling curves presented in Eurocode 3. The work also, attempts to reveal how different imperfections influence the flexural buckling resistance which is demonstrated through Finite Element (FE) simulations. The work presents modeling and analysis on a steel column in ABAQUS 6.14. Linear and non-linear buckling analyses of the steel column, with the influence of imperfections, are implemented in this work. Specifically, the imperfections considered in this study are material plasticity, initial bow and residual stress. The influence of initial bow imperfection of 0.1% of the length of the column considering flexural buckling was found to be 45.28% of the Euler buckling load. The influence of residual stresses, with a magnitude of maximum about 13% in the flange and 35% in the web, of the yielding strength, on flexural buckling is about 31.9% of the design Euler buckling load. The combined effect of residual stress and initial bow imperfection on flexural buckling is about 45.34% of the design Euler buckling load.