International Codes in the Prediction of Load-Bearing Capacity of Slender Columns

The bearing-buckling capacity of slender columns is carefully addressed in modern codes by different analytical methods and non-linear advanced numerical methods for structural analysis. This work summarizes an experimental campaign and the safety formats of international codes available for the prediction of slender columns load-bearing capacity. This work is motivated on a round-robin investigation considering numerical simulations supported on non-linear material models and second-order effects (one of the methods suggested in the Eurocode), that proved an expressive overestimation of the load capacity of single slender columns when comparing the numerical results with the experimental ones. Consequently, a high interest in the safety formats of international codes arises, aiming the comparison of the predictions provided by different methods described in design codes from Canada, China, Japan and USA with the European one (namely, the nominal curvature method), as well as the identification of strengths and weaknesses of such methods.