Imperfections for Local and Global Interaction Buckling of Welded Square High-strength Steel Box-section Columns

The interaction behavior between local and global buckling modes in high-strength steel box-section columns has received limited research attention. Currently, there is a lack of a validated equivalent geometric imperfection that can be effectively employed in nonlinear plastic analysis to estimate the interaction buckling resistance. This research aims to find equivalent geometric imperfections that can be used in geometrical and materially nonlinear analysis using imperfections (GMNIA) to estimate the interaction buckling resistance of square welded box-section columns made of high-strength steel. It extends prior investigations by the authors on equivalent imperfections for normal-strength steel welded box-sections. A developed and validated numerical model is used to perform parametric studies to estimate the accurate buckling capacity using previously developed and verified combinations of imperfections and residual stresses. The accurate buckling capacities are used to calibrate equivalent local and global imperfection combinations that can be used in FEM-based design. A reliability assessment study is also performed to check the safety level of the proposed imperfection combinations.