Analysis of steel storage rack columns.

Abstract

Storage rack systems are structures composed of cold-formed steel structural members that are used as columns, beams and bracing. The rack columns present peculiar features in their design because they have perforations to facilitate assemblage of the system, which makes them more difficult to analyze by cold-formed steel structures design codes. There are several design codes proposed by the manufacturers associations, as the specifications of Rack Manufacturers Institute (RMI), applied in the USA along with the specification of the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI). These codes propose experimental stub columns tests for the determination of their resistance. In this work, the commercial software, ANSYS, is used for material and geometric nonlinear analysis of these columns, and the results are compared with experimental data obtained by stub column tests, for a typical section of racks manufactured in Brazil.