18.04: Experimental investigations of members from angle sections

ABSTRACT Angle sections are commonly used in many Civil Engineering applications and especially in lattice towers for telecommunication purposes. Nevertheless, due to their geometrical characteristics, design expressions, as for example those included in EN1993‐1‐1 or EN 1993‐3‐1, do not apply for cross sections or members composed of angle sections. Although a number of numerical investigations for cross section strength and member stability and proposals for relevant design expressions exist, only limited experimental investigations on members from angle sections, mostly on cold‐formed ones, can be found in literature. In the current paper a test campaign on members from equal leg hot rolled angle sections that has been carried out at the Institute of Steel Structures of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) is presented. Tests included eight 3‐point bending tests and thirty‐one buckling tests on columns subjected to concentric and eccentric compression. The aim of the research is to use the experimental data for calibration of numerical models, the investigation of possible inelastic reserves for angles that were detected in analytical models and as reference for the development of new design expressions oriented towards angle sections only.