Influence of residual stresses on the flexural buckling resistance of high-strength steel hollow sections

Development of the wind energy industry continues to push the need for innovative solutions in terms of structural requirements. High-performance materials are thus needed to improve the efficiency of the structures and to ease the erection costs. The materials used for the towers have not improved significantly in the past years mainly because the design guidelines do not allow the efficient use of the high-strength steels. Lattice wind turbine towers could benefit from cost reductions if cold-formed high-strength steels would be used. Currently high-strength steel members have the same reductions factors for the relevant flexural buckling curve for cold-formed members regardless of the strength of steels. The paper discusses the approach towards the current European buckling curves and draws attention to potential limitations. The residual stresses present in rectangular hollow sections are discussed based on the method of fabrication. Different patterns of residual stresses are investigated by means of finite element simulations. The results indicate that the design codes slightly underestimate the flexural buckling resistance of high-strength steel members in the medium slenderness range.