Effects of flange/web on the buckling behavior of fiber‐reinforced composite channel section column under axial compression

Abstract The flange height (b_f) to web length (b_w) effect on the buckling behavior of a composite column with a channel section was studied. The channel section collumns of b_f /b_w values 0.3, 0.5, and 0.7 were employed. A theoretical analysis was conducted to decide the dimensions of the columns so that the columns produce as many buckling modes as possible. The buckling mode and critical buckling load for each column were determined from the experiments. Results showed the columns exhibited local buckling and overall buckling (flexural and torsional‐flexural) modes depending on the b_f /b_w and column length. That is, the flexural buckling occurred only for columns having a b_f/b_w value of 0.3, while the torsional‐flexural buckling occurred for columns with b_f /b_w values of 0.5 and 0.7. The results also showed that the local buckling load decreased as b_f /b_w increased.