M.Tech. (Civil Engineering) / The results of an investigation on the local buckling of cold-formed stainless steel compression sections arc presented in this dissertation. The stainless steel under consideration is AISI Type 304 Austenitic, manufactured by the South African based speciality steel producing company Middelburg Steel & Alloys. All sections were manufactured by press braking process. The purpose of this investigation was to study the critical buckling stress and buckling coefficient (k), of cold-formed, partially stiffened stainless steel compression elements in order to determine the applicability of the current design specification. The mechanical properties of the stainless steel under consideration as well as the results of 28 partially stiffened double hat sections are compared with theoretical predictions. It was concluded in this study that the experimental results of the critical buckling stress compare well when using the plasticity reduction factor Es/Eo in the theoretical predictions. However the theoretical buckling coefficient (k) shows to be not representative to the experimental results obtained in this investigation.