Carrying capacity of stainless steel columns in the low slenderness range

In European standards, for Class 4 cross-sections, the Effective Width Method (EWM) must be used to account for the effect of local buckling. Because of the complexity of this method, other methods have been developed, such as the Direct Strength Method (DSM) for cold-formed thin-walled profiles and the Continuous Strength Method (CSM), initially established for members made of stainless steels. To a large extent, the CSM yield accurate predictions, especially in the low slenderness range where the current DSM design procedure tends to produce conservative results, for materials with pronounced strain hardening. The present paper presents an extension of the DSM which provides accurate strength predictions in the low slenderness range for stainless steel thin-walled section columns failing by distortional, local and overall buckling.