• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.19 no.6
• /
• pp.1599-1610
• /
• 2015

Cold Formed Steel members are widely used in today's construction industry. However the structural behavior of light gauge high strength cold formed steel sections characterized by various buckling modes are not yet fully understood. Because of their simple forming and easy connections, the commonly used cold formed sections for beams are C and Z. However both these sections suffer from certain buckling modes. To achieve much improved structural performance of cold formed sections for beams both in terms of strength and stiffness, it is important to either delay or completely eliminate their various modes of buckling. This paper presents various innovative sectional profiles and stiffening arrangements for cold formed steel beams which would successfully contribute in delaying or eliminating various modes of premature buckling, thus considerably improving the load carrying capacity as well as stiffness characteristics of such innovative cold formed sections compared to conventional cold formed steel sections commonly used for beams.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.14 no.3
• /
• pp.205-227
• /
• 2013

Current design standards do not provide adequate guidelines for the fire design of cold-formed steel compression members subject to flexural-torsional buckling. Eurocode 3 Part 1.2 (2005) recommends the same fire design guidelines for both hot-rolled and cold-formed steel compression members subject to flexural-torsional buckling although considerable behavioural differences exist between cold-formed and hot-rolled steel members. Past research has recommended the use of ambient temperature cold-formed steel design rules for the fire design of cold-formed steel compression members provided appropriately reduced mechanical properties are used at elevated temperatures. To assess the accuracy of flexural-torsional buckling design rules in both ambient temperature cold-formed steel design and fire design standards, an experimental study of slender cold-formed steel compression members was undertaken at both ambient and elevated temperatures. This paper presents the details of this experimental study, its results, and their comparison with the predictions from the current design rules. It was found that the current ambient temperature design rules are conservative while the fire design rules are overly conservative. Suitable recommendations have been made in relation to the currently available design rules for flexural-torsional buckling including methods of improvement. Most importantly, this paper has addressed the lack of experimental results for slender cold-formed steel columns at elevated temperatures.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.20 no.1
• /
• pp.21-41
• /
• 2016

Cold-formed steel structures are increasingly attractive due to their benefits of good mechanical performance and constructional advantages. However, this type of construction is still not fully exploited as a result of the acknowledged difficulties involved in forming construction-efficient and cost-effective connections. Furthermore, there is a lack of information on the structural behavior of the cold-formed steel connections. In this study, the research on various cold-formed steel connections was comprehensively reviewed from both fundamental and structural points of view, based on the available experimental and analytical data. It reveals that the current design codes and guidelines for cold-formed steel connections tend to focus more on the individual bearing capacity of the fasteners rather than the overall structural behavior of the connections. Significant future work remains to be conducted on the structural performance of cold-formed steel connection. In addition, extensive previous research has been carried out to propose and evaluate an economical and efficient connection system that is obtained from the conventional connecting techniques used in the hot-rolled industry. These connecting techniques may not be suitable, however, as they have been adopted from hot-rolled steel portal frames due to the thinness of the sheet in cold-formed steels. The review demonstrates that with the increasing demand for cold-formed steel constructions throughout the world, it is crucial to develop an efficient connection system that can be prefabricated and easily assembled on site.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.45 no.6
• /
• pp.895-905
• /
• 2022

Composite flooring systems consisting of cold-formed steel joists and reinforced concrete slabs offer an efficient, lightweight solution. However, utilisation of composite action to achieve enhanced strength and economical design has been limited. In this study, finite element modelling was utilised to create a three-dimensional model which was then validated against experimental results for a composite flooring system consisting of cold-formed steel joists, reinforced concrete slab and steel bolt shear connectors. This validated numerical model was then utilised to perform parametric studies on the performance of the structural system. The results from the parametric study demonstrate that increased thickness of the concrete slab and increased thickness of the cold formed steel beam resulted in higher moment capacity and stiffness of the composite flooring system. In addition, reducing the spacing of bolts and spacing of the cold formed steel beams both resulted in enhanced load capacity of the composite system. Increasing the concrete grade was also found to increase the moment capacity of the composite flooring system. Overall, the results show that an efficient, lightweight composite flooring system can be achieved and optimised by selecting suitable concrete slab thickness, cold formed beam thickness, bolt spacing, cold formed beam spacing and concrete grade.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.837-853
• /
• 2016

This paper presents the experimental and numerical study on the distribution of transverse and longitudinal residual stresses in cold-formed thick-walled structural steel rectangular hollow sections manufactured by indirect technique. Hole-drilling method is employed to measure the magnitude of the transverse and longitudinal surface residual stress distribution, and the effects of the residual stresses are evaluated qualitatively by sectioning method. It is shown that compared to normal cold-formed thin-walled structural hollow sections (SHS), the cold-formed thick-walled SHS has similar level of residual stress in the flat area but higher residual stresses in the corner and welding areas. Both the transverse and longitudinal residual stresses tend to open the section. In order to predict the surface residual stresses in the corners of the cold-formed thick-walled SHS, an analytical model is developed. 2D finite element simulation of the cold bending process is conducted to validate the analytical approach. It is shown that in analyzing bending for thick-walled sections, shifting of neutral axis must be considered, since it would lead to nonlinear and non-symmetrical distribution of stresses through the thickness. This phenomenon leads to the fact that cold-formed thick-walled SHSs has different distribution and magnitude of the residual stresses from the cold-formed thin-walled SHSs.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.3 no.6
• /
• pp.451-474
• /
• 2003

Details are given of a cold-formed steel portal framing system that uses simple bolted moment-connections for both the eaves and apex joints. However, such joints function as semi-rigid and, as a result, the design of the proposed system will be dominated by serviceability requirements. While serviceability is a mandatory design requirement, actual deflection limits for portal frames are not prescribed in many of the national standards. In this paper, a review of the design constraints that have an effect on deflection limits is discussed, and rational values appropriate for use with cold-formed steel portal frames are recommended. Adopting these deflection limits, it is shown through a design example how a cold-formed steel portal frame having semi-rigid eaves and apex joints can be a feasible alternative to rigid-jointed frames in appropriate circumstances.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.22 no.1
• /
• pp.79-89
• /
• 2016

Cold formed steel shear panel is one of the main components to bearing lateral load in low and mid-rise cold formed steel structures. This paper uses finite element analysis to evaluate the stiffness, strength and failure mode at cold formed steel shear panels whit steel sheathing and nonlinear connections that are under monotonic loading. Two finite element models based on two experimental model whit different failure modes is constructed and verified. It includes analytical studies that investigate the effects of studs and steel sheathing thickness changes, fasteners spacing at panel edges, one or two sides steel sheathing and height-width ratio of wall on the lateral load capacity. Dominant failure modes include buckling of steel sheet, local buckling in boundary studs and sheet unzipping in the bottom half of the wall.

• Advances in Computational Design
• /
• v.1 no.2
• /
• pp.207-220
• /
• 2016

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of stiffened element and edge stiffener in the behaviour and flexural strength of built-up cold-formed steel beams. An experimental and analytical analysis of CFS channel sections in four different geometries is conducted, including simple channel sections, a stiffened channel section with or without edge stiffeners. Nonlinear finite element models are developed using finite element analysis software package ANSYS. The FEA results are verified with the experimental results. Further, the finite element model is used for parametric studies by varying the depth, thickness, and the effect of stiffened element, edge stiffener and their interaction with compression flanges on stiffened built-up cold-formed steel beams with upright edge stiffeners. In addition, the flexural strength predicted by the finite element analysis is compared with the design flexural strength calculated by using the North American Iron and Steel Institute Specifications for cold-formed steel structures (AISI: S100-2007) and suitable suggestion is made.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.12 no.6
• /
• pp.465-489
• /
• 2012

Residual stresses play important role for design of steel structural members. Cold formed sections usually have residual stresses caused by roll forming. When compared to stresses caused by the working load, especially for compressed members, the effects of residual stresses can be favorable or unfavorable depending on magnitude, orientation and distribution of these stresses. The research presented in this paper includes experimental investigations of residual stresses, initial imperfections and material properties on cold formed carbon steel open cross sections. Experimental results have been compared to results obtained in similar tests with stainless and high strength steel cross sections. Theoretical and experimental research, conducted for cold formed open cross sections, are important for design of axially compressed members. This paper presents two methods of residual stresses investigation: magnetic method and method of pre-drilled holes and obtained results have been compared with results of residual stresses from other authors.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.6 no.4
• /
• pp.285-302
• /
• 2006

This paper describes the design and behaviour of cold-formed stainless steel slender circular hollow section columns. The columns were compressed between fixed ends at different column lengths. The investigation focused on large diameter-to-plate thickness (D/t) ratio ranged from 100 to 200. An accurate finite element model has been developed. The initial local and overall geometric imperfections have been included in the finite element model. The material nonlinearity of the cold-formed stainless steel sections was incorporated in the model. The column strengths, load-shortening curves as well as failure modes were predicted using the finite element model. The nonlinear finite element model was verified against test results. An extensive parametric study was carried out to study the effects of cross-section geometries on the strength and behaviour of stainless steel slender circular hollow section columns with large D/t ratio. The column strengths predicted from the parametric study were compared with the design strengths calculated using the American Specification, Australian/New Zealand Standard and European Code for cold-formed stainless steel structures. It is shown that the design strengths obtained using the Australian/New Zealand and European specifications are generally unconservative for the cold-formed stainless steel slender circular hollow section columns, while the American Specification is generally quite conservative. Therefore, design equation was proposed in this study.