Numerical verification of stainless steel overall buckling curves

• Over 2000 numerical calculations of models with shell elements (mostly with residual stress and nonlinear materials) were carried out.
• Software for virtual testing in Abaqus was developed and used for this study.
• The recorded ultimate loads were recalculated to nondimensional reduction factors.
• The results were compared to the standard Eurocode 3 buckling curves.

The introduction of new material grades or fabrication methods in engineering structures always raises concerns about the validity of current design rules, especially those based on earlier material or member testing. One of the fundamental structural checks is the overall stability of beams and columns. In this paper, a series of virtual buckling tests is calculated and compared to the Eurocode buckling curves. The main focus is on the applicability of ferritic steels that generally have different stress–strain behaviour than austenitic or duplex grades.