Experimental and computational study on local buckling of standard and improved cold-formed square hollow sections under static and dynamic loading

Because of aesthetics, economic advantages, easy composite member production and design, and a wide range of standard sizes, hollow sections are commonly utilized in various construction industry applications worldwide, including conventional and unique free-form structures. However, the sections must fulfill more restricted circumstances to avoid early local buckling. The behavior of cold-formed square hollow sections with different wall thicknesses under static and dynamic transverse impact loading was investigated experimentally and numerically in this study. A method that uses rivet nuts is proposed to improve the dominant local buckling behavior, which is observed in the experimental studies and causes a relatively low bending strength, for providing convenience in field applications. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated experimentally and numerically using finite-element analysis. In addition to conventional measurement techniques, motion analysis is performed using digital image correlation to measure the displacements during static and dynamic tests. With the proposed technique, the local buckling strength of the square hollow sections is increased by 64% under static loading and by approximately 40–85% under dynamic loading compared with standard square hollow sections, respectively. This is due to the internal stiffness plate, steel threaded rods, and rivet nut configuration connecting the flanges and webs of the square hollow section, which ensures load sharing between the section parts. Additionally, steel threaded rods prevent early buckling of the internal stiffness plate. In addition, parametric analysis results show that the thickness of the internal stiffness plate has a negligible effect on the local buckling strength, although the presence of an internal stiffness plate increased the strength. The numerical analysis results indicate that the local buckling behavior of both conventional and improved square hollow specimens can be predicted with acceptable errors in terms of their strength and damage modes using finite-element analysis models. © 2023 Institution of Structural Engineers