A few column design options are illustrated below. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list of available column sections and material alternatives, but showcases the most common types used.
Column Section and Material Options
In the UK and Europe, for steel columns, H sections are the most prevalent, although steel hollow closed sections are also somewhat on the rise. In Japan, steel hollow columns and CFT (concrete-filled tube) columns are very common due to their superior ductility and use in moment frames for resisting high seismic loading demands.
SRC (steel-reinforced concrete columns) are also used in high seismic regions, or tall buildings in order to keep the column sizes small and to resist high axial loads. Timber columns in medium to large sized structures are generally made from engineered timber, typically glulam. Finally, reinforced concrete columns are typical in all regions worldwide due to the common availability of its base materials.