Stability of Thin-Walled Compression Members

Stainless steel has come into the foreground as a material for structures in which lightweight is of primary importance. Its weight economy is inherent in its high strength, permitting the use of thinner sections. Ordinarily, the form in which it is used is that of members fabricated from cold rolled sheet. The thinness of the sections used and the manner of their fabrication tend to make local instability a major factor in their design. This paper describes a method of computing the local stability, or crippling strength, of thin-walled compression members which was developed empirically from test data. Although derived primarily for stainless steel, the method is readily adaptable to other metals. Also, although the tests were conducted on small sections characteristic of aircraft structures, the principles discussed are equally applicable to large-scale members common to civil engineering practice.