Local Buckling Behaviour of Wire Arc Additively Manufactured High Strength Steel Circular Hollow Sections

Abstract Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) is a rapidly developing metal 3D printing technique that enables the production of large scale structures suitable for the construction industry. There currently exists, however, a lack of fundamental structural performance data on WAAM elements upon which to establish design provisions and derive suitable partial safety factors. The present paper investigates the cross‐sectional behaviour of WAAM high strength steel circular hollow sections (CHS) through a comprehensive experimental programme that includes tensile coupon tests, initial geometric imperfection measurements and stub column tests on WAAM high strength (ER120S‐G) steel CHS with large diameter‐to‐thickness ratios. 3D laser scanning and digital image correlation were employed to capture the specimen geometries prior to testing and to record the deformation fields during the experiments, respectively. The stub column tests evaluated the local buckling resistance of the CHS specimens, all of which exhibited failure in characteristic diamond local buckling patterns. The test results were analysed and compared to the EN 1993‐1‐6 design provisions.