The inelastic buckling, free vibration and damage of prismatic thin-walled columns, considering two sources of non-linearity (geometrical non-linearity due to large deflection and material non-linearity due to inelastic behaviour), are analysed by implementing the semi-analytical finite strip method (FSM). A very basic continuum damage model with one damage parameter is implemented in conjunction with a mathematical material modelling approach named rheological-dynamical analogy (RDA) in order to address stiffness reduction due to inelastic behaviour. The RDA is a type of inelastic analysis, which transforms one category of very complicated material non-linear problems to simpler linear dynamical problems using modal analysis. The effective stress, as defined in the damage mechanics, is used in this paper. An analysis of damaged composite thin-walled wide-flange columns made of a polymer resin, which is reinforced with fibrous material, is carried out. Numerical examples computed by application of extensive hybrid parallelization present the influence of mode interactions on the damage variables and effective stresses in thin-walled columns.