Load-carrying capacity of thin-walled composite structures

Thin walled composite beam-coloumns with open and closed cross-section (channel and square cross-section) are calculated as an example. In order to analyse the stability and the structure performance after its loss, the ANSYS 5.7 package and authors' software has been used. Results obtained from both applied methods are compared. Presented examples show that the sole application of the FEM does not guarantee to obtain correct results of load carrying capacity and postbuckling path.