STEEL DESIGN

COURSE CODE: 0401-418

CHAPTER
Axially
Loaded
Compression
Members
TEXT BOOK, STRUCTURAL STEEL
DESIGN, JACK McCormack

Zaid A. Al-Sadoon, Ph.D., P.Eng.

Introduction
▪ There are several types of compression members,
with the columns being the best known.
▪ Columns are defined as straight vertical members
whose length is considerably greater than their
thickness and carry loads in compression.
▪ They carry also bending moments about one or
both axes of the cross section.
▪ These bending moments produce tensile forces
over the cross section.
▪ Yet, since the compression stresses are dominant,
columns are termed compression members.
 Introduction

▪ Other compression members include:

▪ bracing elements

▪ members subjected simultaneously to

bending and compression.
▪ Compression elements in trusses

▪ Arch ribs
Introduction
 Introduction
Column Supports

Columns
in
Buildings
Modes of Failure
▪ Flexural Buckling: Also called Euler Buckling, is the primary
type of buckling. Members are subject to flexure or
bending when they become unstable.
Modes of Failure
▪ Local Buckling: Occurs when some parts of the column
cross section are thin to the extent that they buckle locally
before failure takes place. Possibility of this failure is
measured by width thickness ratio.
Modes of Failure
▪ Flexural Torsional Buckling: Columns in this case fail by
twisting, or moment about their axes.

Torsional Buckling Mode

For Cantilever axially

Loaded at the top
 Ideal Situations for Columns

▪ The loads supported by a column are applied from columns above

and by the connection of other members directly to the column.

▪ The ideal situation is to have the load applied uniformly across the
column cross section (concentric loads).

▪ It is also desirable that columns have no flaws, and to consist of a

homogeneous material, and to be perfectly straight.

▪ These conditions are hard to be met, because:

➢ Loads specially live loads can never be concentric

➢ Flaws are quite unavoidable

Slenderness Ratio
▪ The longer a column becomes for the same cross section,
the greater becomes its tendency to buckle and the
smaller becomes the load it will support.

▪ The tendency of a column to buckle is usually measured by

its slenderness ratio, which is defined as the ratio of the
column length to its least radius of gyration.
Tips for Efficient Selection of Column Section

▪ The most efficient compression member is the one that has a

constant radius of gyration a property available in round
Hollow Structural Sections (HSS tubing) and pipe sections.

▪ Square tubing is the next efficient compression member.

▪ Four sided and round HSS sections are much easier to paint
than are open W M and Sections. Further, the round corner
make it easy to apply paint or any coating uniformly around the
sections.
 Why is a column more critical than a beam or a
tension member ?

▪ A column is more critical member in a structure than a beam or a

tension member, because slight imperfections in material or
dimension in a column mean a great deal.

▪ To illustrate, take the example of truss bridge with some members

damaged by a truck:

▪ The bending of tension members probably, will not be serious as the

tensile load will tend to straighten those members.

▪ But the bending of any compression member is a serious matter as

compressive loads will tend to magnify bending in those members
and members will fail in buckling.
 Column Bay

▪ Bay is the spacing of column in plan

▪ For example, if the columns are 20ft on center in one direction

and 25 ft in the other direction, then the bay size is 20 ft x 25 ft.

▪ For flexibility in space planning, architect would opt for large bay
sizes
Residual Stresses

▪ Residual stresses are stresses than remain in a member after it

has been formed into a finished product.

▪ Causes of residual stress:

➢ Uneven cooling occurring after hot rolling of structural shapes

➢ Cold bending or cambering during fabrication.

➢ Punching of holes during fabrication

➢ Welding during erection

➢ Any irregularities during erection

 Residual Stresses…

▪ The quicker cooling parts of the section, when solidified, resist

further shortening, while those part that are still hot tend to
shorten further as they cool.

▪ The resultant is that areas that cooled quickly have compressive

residual stresses, while the slower cooling areas have tensile
residual stresses.
 Residual Stresses in Hot Rolled Sections

▪ In a Wide flanges, the flanges being the thicker parts, cool

more slowly than the web region. And the flange tips with
greater exposure to air cool more rapidly than the region at
the junction of the flange and the web.

▪ As a result, compressive residual stresses exist at flange tip

and depth of the web, while tensile residual stresses exist in
the flange and the web at regions where they join.
Residual Stresses in Hot Rolled Sections
Sections Used for Columns
Efficient Selection of Column Section

▪ HSS tubing, pipe sections and closed built-up sections have less
surface area to paint or fireproof.

▪ They also have attractive tubing surfaces.

▪ They exhibit excellent torsional resistance

▪ When exposed, round sections have wind resistance of only about

2/3 of that of surfaces of the same width.

▪ If cleanliness is important, hollow structural section (HSS) is ideal as

it does not have the issue of dirt collecting between the flanges of
open structural shapes.
Development of Column Formulas

• In 1757, Leonhard Euler, A Swiss mathematician wrote a

paper of great value concerning the buckling of columns.

• The Euler formula, the most famous of all column

equations will be derived in the following viewgraphs

• Practical column design is based primarily on formulas

that have been developed to fit with reasonable accuracy
test-result curves.
Development of Column Formulas

• Testing of columns with various slenderness ratios results in

a scattered range of values as shown below
Development of Column Formulas
• The dots in the figure will not fall in a smooth curve even if
all the testing is performed in the same lab because of the
difficulty to:
• Exactly centering the loads.
• Lack of perfect uniformity of the materials.
• Varying dimensions of the sections.
• Residual stresses.
• End restraint variations.
• Etc. other such issues.

• The usual practice is to attempt to develop formulas that

give results representative of an approximate average of
the test results.
• It is also to be realized that laboratory conditions are not
field conditions, and column tests probably give the
limiting values of column strengths.
Development of Column Formulas

• If the column is short enough that the failure mode is by

crushing compression. This is called a short column.
• For a longer column, the failure mode is buckling at the mid-
span of the member. This is called a slender, or long,
column.
• Intermediate columns fail by a combination of buckling and
compression.
Development of Column Formulas

Column failure modes

 Definition of Buckling

• A sudden large deformation of structure due to a slight

increase of an existing load under which the structure has
exhibited a little, if any, deformation before the load was
increased.

• Buckling is a mode of failure generally resulting from

structural instability due to compressive action on the
structural member or element involved.
Definition of Buckling
 The Critical Buckling Load
▪ The stress at which a column buckles decreases as the column
becomes longer.
▪ After the column reaches certain length, that stress will have fallen
to the elastic limit (proportional limit) of the steel.
▪ For that length and above, the buckling stress will be elastic.
▪ For a column to buckle elastically, it has to be long and slender,
and its critical buckling load Pcr will be computed from the Euler
equation:
The Critical Buckling Load and Stress

Euler buckling Load is:

When the above equation is written in terms of the column’s

slenderness ratio and r = 𝐼/𝐴 , Therefore: I = A r2 , Substituting
this value and dividing both sides by the cross-sectional area, the
Euler buckling stress is obtained:

When calculating the critical buckling for columns, I (or r) should be obtained
about the weak axis.
Example 1
END RESTRAINT AND EFFECTIVE LENGTHS OF COLUMNS

• The basic Euler formula is useful only the end supports are
carefully considered.
• Results obtained by applying the formula to specific example for
centrally loaded, long, slender columns with rounded ends
compare very well (Hinged).
• With changes in the above parameters in practical life, it is
indispensable to consider the end restrains.
• Thus the effective length Leff of a column is defined as the
distance between successive inflection points or points of zero
moment in the column.
• The effective length factor is K = Leff / L
END RESTRAINT AND EFFECTIVE LENGTHS OF COLUMNS
END RESTRAINT AND EFFECTIVE LENGTHS OF COLUMNS
END RESTRAINT AND EFFECTIVE LENGTHS OF COLUMNS
END RESTRAINT AND EFFECTIVE LENGTHS OF COLUMNS
STIFFENED AND UNSTIFFENED ELEMENTS

It is entirely possible for the thin flanges or webs of a column or beam to

buckle locally in compression well before the calculated buckling strength
of the whole member is reached. When thin plates are used to carry
compressive stresses, they are particularly susceptible to buckling about
their weak axes due to the small moments of inertia in those directions.
For this reason, two categories are listed in the AISC Manual: stiffened
elements and unstiffened elements.

LRFD Specification (Section B5)

• An unstiffened element is a projecting piece with one free edge
parallel to the direction of the compression force.
• A stiffened element is supported along two edges in that direction.
• These types of elements are shown in next slide. In each case, the
width b and the thickness t of the elements in question are shown.
STIFFENED AND UNSTIFFENED ELEMENTS
Classification of Compression Sections for Local Buckling

Compression sections are classified as either a non-slender element or a

slender element

• A Non-slender element is one where the width-to-thickness of its

compression elements does not exceed lr .

• A Slender element is the one that does exceed the width-to-

thickness of its compression elements lr .
STIFFENED AND UNSTIFFENED ELEMENTS
STIFFENED AND UNSTIFFENED ELEMENTS
STIFFENED AND UNSTIFFENED ELEMENTS
STIFFENED AND UNSTIFFENED ELEMENTS
 Yield Strength and Length of Columns

Columns

Long Short Intermediate

❖ Fail by Elastic Buckling ❖ Fail by Yielding ❖ Inelastic Failure

❖ Follow Euler Formula ❖ No Practical Application ❖ Fail by Yielding + Buckling

 LONG, SHORT, AND INTERMEDIATE COLUMNS
Long Columns
– Long columns usually fails elastically.
– The Euler formula predicts very well the strength of long
columns where the axial compressive buckling stress remains
below the proportional limit.

Short Columns
- The failure stress will equal the yield stress and no buckling will
occur.

Intermediate Columns
- Some of the fibers will reach the yield stress and some will not.
- The members will fail by both yielding and buckling, and their behavior is said
to be inelastic. Most columns fall into this range.

Formulas are presented with which the AISC estimates the strength of columns
in these different length ranges. The Euler formula is used by the AISC LRFD for
long columns with elastic buckling while an empirical parabolic equation is used
for short and intermediate columns.
COLUMNS FORMULAS

for members without

slender elements
COLUMNS FORMULAS
 COLUMNS FORMULAS

AISC Manual provides computed values of critical stresses Фc Fcr

in Table 4-22 (All sections). The values are given for practical KL/r
values (0 to 200) and for steels Fy with 35, 36, 42, 46, and 50 ksi.

Also in Tables 4-1 (W sections) to 4-12 (Different sections)for

member selection tables.

MAXIMUM SLENDERNESS RATIOS

Compression members preferably should be designed with
AISC DESIGN TABLES
AISC DESIGN TABLES
 Example 2

A. Using the column critical

stress values in Table 4-22 of
the Manual, determine the
LRFD design Фc Fcr for the
column shown if a 50-ksi steel
is used.

B. Repeat the problem, using

Table 4-1 of the Manual.

C. Calculate Фc Fcr using the

equations of AISC Section E3.
 Example 2 Solution
A.
Example 2 Solution
Example 2 Solution
 Example 2 Solution
B.
 Example 2 Solution

C.
Example 3

Determine the LRFD design Фc Pn for the axially loaded

column shown if KL = 19 ft and a 50-ksi steel is used.
Example 3 Solution
 Determine the design compression stress

• To determine the design compression stress needed for a particular column, it

is theoretically necessary to compute both (KL/r)x and (KL/r)y
• Most of the steel sections used for columns, ry, will be much less than rx. As a
result, only (KL/r)y is calculated for most columns and used in the applicable
column formulas.
• For some columns bracing is supplied perpendicular to the weak axis, thus
reducing the slenderness or the length free to buckle in that direction.
• The designer needs to calculate both (KL/r)x and (KL/r)y. The larger ratio
obtained for a particular column indicates the weaker direction and will be
used for calculating the design stress cFcr
• We would like to know which of these two values is going to control. This can
easily be learned by determining a value of KxLx that is equivalent to KyLy. The
slenderness ratio in the x direction is equated to an equivalent value in the y
direction as follows:
K y Ly K x Lx
Equivalent =
ry rx
K x Lx
Equivalent K y Ly =
rx ry
•Thus, the controlling KyLy for use in the tables is the larger of the real KyLy
or the equivalent KyLy.
Example 4

a) Determine the LRFD design strength Фc Fcr for the axially loaded column
W14 x 90 if a 50-ksi steel is used. (The column is braced perpendicular to
its weak, or y, axis at the points shown in the figure).
b) Repeat part (a)using the column tables of Part 4; 4-1 of the Manual
Example 4 Solution
Example 4 Solution

The Greater
Example 4 Solution
Questions ?