Study on the bearing capacity of cold-formed thin-walled double-limbed steel lattice columns under eccentric compression about virtual axis with batten plate lacing

Abstract Cold-formed thin-walled steel is among the materials most frequently used in the building, industry, and transportation fields because of the benefits it offers. These are lightweight, high-strength, environmentally friendly, and sustainable. To address the wide application requirements in practical engineering, the cross-section shapes of cold-formed thin-walled steel have diversified, and the stability issues of its components have always been key concerns in design and application. The behavior of these components is greatly influenced by the equivalent slenderness ratio. However, previous studies have not adequately addressed this issue; the literature lacks a limiting value for the slenderness ranges. This paper proposes a batten plate-laced cold-formed thin-walled double-limbed steel lattice column. Research on the effects of the component’s equivalent slenderness ratio, the cross-section of the primary and secondary hemming length, web width-to-thickness ratio, clear limb spacing distance, and eccentric distance on the lattice column’s eccentric compression performance were conducted. In the final step, the load-axial displacement curve, ultimate bearing capacity, and failure modes of the double-limb lattice column were obtained. The results showed that its eccentric compression performance worsened as the lattice column’s equivalent slenderness ratio increased. The failure mechanism of the latticed columns evolves from local buckling to a hybrid of global and local buckling, eventually developing into a predominantly global buckling failure.