ABSTRACT

The paper deals with local buckling of a compressed single flange of thin-walled channel cold-formed columns and beams made of aluminum alloy. Material is described by means of the Ramberg-Osgood constitutive equation. Axial compression of the columns and beams undergoing bending is taken into consideration. A simple model of the member flange in the form a long beam elastically connected to the web is used to find the critical buckling stress. The governing differential equation is derived with the aid of the stationary total potential energy principle. The tangent modulus theory is applied to find the critical buckling stress and buckling modes. Analytical formulas of the critical stress and buckling mode are positively verified by the FEM and FSM analysis of numerical examples.