Steel Column Design Check (AISC)

civil

Checks a steel W-shape column for axial compressive capacity per AISC 360-22 Chapter E. Looks up section properties from the AISC shapes table, calculates Euler buckling stress, critical stress (inelastic or elastic), nominal and design compressive strength, demand/capacity ratio, and element slenderness classification per Table B4.1a.

Free with sign-in

Run the calculator

Shape Designation*

AISC W-shape designation (e.g., 'W14X90', 'W10X49'). Looked up in the steel shapes table for section properties (A, I, r, bf, tf, tw).

Steel Grade

ASTM steel grade. Available: A36 (Fy=36 ksi), A572-50 (Fy=50 ksi), A992 (Fy=50 ksi, standard for W-shapes), A913-50, A913-65. If omitted, defaults to 'A992'.

Unbraced Length Ft*

Unbraced length of the column in feet. This is the distance between lateral bracing points. Used with K-factors to compute KL/r slenderness ratios. Distance between braced points. Typical: 10-14 ft per story for buildings.

Effective length factor for buckling about the strong axis (x-x) per AISC Table C-A-7.1. Common values: 1.0 (pinned-pinned), 0.65 (fixed-fixed), 2.1 (fixed-free cantilever). If omitted, defaults to 1.0 (pinned-pinned).

Effective length factor for buckling about the weak axis (y-y) per AISC Table C-A-7.1. Often governs because ry < rx for W-shapes. Typical: 1.0 for pinned-pinned, 0.65 for fixed-pinned, 0.5 for fixed-fixed. Use AISC alignment chart for frames. If omitted, defaults to 1.0 (pinned-pinned).

Required Strength Kip*

Factored axial compressive demand Pu in kips (LRFD). Must include all applicable load combinations per ASCE 7. Factored axial load (LRFD Pu). Typical: 100-1000 kips for building columns.

Phi C

AISC resistance factor for compression per Chapter E. Standard value is 0.90 for LRFD. AISC 360: 0.90 for LRFD. Do not change unless using ASD (Omega_c = 1.67). If omitted, defaults to 0.90.

This calculator requires a free account.

Reference data

This calculator pulls live values from the following engineering reference tables in the database.

steel shapes

About this calculator

Steel Column Design Check (AISC) is part of the Engineering Database calculator suite. Each tool runs deterministic calculations against authoritative reference data and code-compliant methods, so results are reproducible and traceable to source standards.

Sign up free to use the AI Engineer, search the engineering reference database, and access more of the calculator catalog.

Preparing workspace

Run the calculator

Reference data

About this calculator