Numerical investigation of web crippling in fastened aluminium lipped channel sections under two-flange loading conditions

Aluminium alloys have recently been utilised in the fabrication of thin-walled members using a roll-forming technique to produce purlins, floor joists and other structural bearers. Such members are often subjected to transversely concentrated loads which may possibly cause a critical web crippling failure. Aluminium specifications do not explicitly provide clear design guidelines for roll-formed members subjected to web crippling actions. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the mechanism of web crippling for roll-formed aluminium lipped channel (ALC) sections with flanges attached to supports (fastened) under two-flange loading conditions. Based on the experimental works presented in a companion paper, numerical simulations were conducted including an extensive parametric study covering a wide range of ALC geometrical dimensions, bearing lengths, and 5052 aluminium alloy grade with H32, H36 and H38 tempers. The acquired web crippling data were then used to investigate the influence of the flange restraints on the web crippling mechanism of the ALC sections. Furthermore, a detailed assessment of the consistency and reliability of the currently available design rules used in practice was carried out. The predictions of the web crippling design guidelines given in the Australian, American and European specifications were found to be unsafe and unreliable, whereas a good agreement was obtained between the predictions of our recently proposed design guidelines and acquired web crippling results. Further a suitable Direct Strength Method (DSM)-based design approach was developed in this study with associated equations to predict the elastic bucking and plastic loads of fastened ALC sections under two-flange loading conditions.