Local Buckling of Steel Members Under Fire Conditions: A Review

Local buckling is a failure mode commonly observed in thin-walled structural steel elements. Even though its effect on their behaviour at ambient temperature conditions is well documented and incorporated in current design codes, this is not the case when such elements are exposed to fire. This paper focuses on the occurrence of local buckling in steel members at elevated temperatures by conducting a thorough review of the literature. Experimental data (over 400 in total) gathered from 16 different sources are presented for both hot-formed as well as cold-formed elements made from different cross-sectional geometries (rolled or welded H-sections, box sections, channels etc). The effect of local buckling (and the various parameters that influence it) on the failure temperature is discussed based on the collected experimental evidence. Finally, the methods (numerical modelling and proposed analytical expressions) used by different authors to understand this phenomenon for steel members exposed to fire are discussed.