Experimental study of stainless steel angle sections 3D‐printed by wire‐laser additive manufacturing (WLAM)

Abstract Additive manufacturing, often known as 3D‐printing, is being increasingly used in the construction industry. This paper presents an experimental study on the loadcarrying capacities of stainless steel equal‐leg angle section stub columns 3D‐printed by means of the emerging wire‐laser additive manufacturing (WLAM) technology. The testing programme included material coupon tests, measurements of geometric properties and 16 stub column tests. Following the testing programme, a design analysis was carried out based on the obtained test data, where the applicability of Eurocode 3 to WLAM stainless steel equal‐leg angle sections was assessed. The assessment results generally reveal that Eurocode 3 offers conservative design resistances for WLAM stainless steel angle section stub columns under compression. The Continuous Strength Method, which accounts for the effect of material strain hardening in the cross‐section resistance prediction, was also evaluated and found to offer improved overall design accuracy over Eurocode 3.