Estimating the strength of bi-axially loaded track and channel cold formed composite column using different AI-based symbolic regression techniques

Steel construction is increasingly using thin-walled profiles to achieve lighter, more cost-effective structures. However, analyzing the behavior of these elements becomes very complex due to the combined effects of local buckling in the thin walls and overall global buckling of the entire column. These factors make traditional analytical methods difficult to apply. Hence, in this research work, the strength of bi-axially loaded track and channel cold formed composite column has been estimated by applying three AI-based symbolic regression techniques namely (GP), (EPR) and (GMDH-NN). These techniques were selected because their output models are closed form equations that could be manually used. The methodology began with collecting a 90 records database from previous researches and conducting statistical, correlation and sensitivity analysis, and then the database was used to train and validate the three models. All the models used local and global slenderness ratios (λ, λc, λt) and relative eccentricities (ex/D, ey/B) as inputs and (F/Fy) as output. The performances of the developed models were compared with the predicted capacities from two design codes (AISI and EC3). The results showed that both design codes have prediction error of 33% while the three developed models showed better performance with error percent of 6%, and the (EPR) model is the simplest one. Also, both correlation and sensitivity analysis showed that the global slenderness ratio (λ) has the main influence on the strength, then the relative eccentricities (ex/D, ey/B) and finally the local slenderness ratios (λc, λt).