Abstract
This paper presents an experimental, analytical and numerical investigation on the correlation between non-dimensional slenderness and pure bending strength of stiffened cold-formed steel as a construction material. Cover plates with three different thicknesses (1.6, 2 and 4 mm) were incorporated to evaluate the slenderness effects on flexural performance of C-sections installed at top flanges only as it would be the predicted location for local and distortional buckling. The lateral supports were provided to prevent lateral torsional buckling in the experiment investigation. Application of the Direct Strength Method led to an extensive parametric study to investigate the moment capacity and buckling modes of specimens with different cover plate thicknesses. A nonlinear finite element model was developed and verified against the test results in terms of failure buckling modes. Moreover, a newly recommended non-dimensional slenderness of DSM in order to address the plastic strength for stocky sections was proposed in this paper. The results explicitly showed that the cover plate reduced the non-dimensional slenderness which resulted in improved buckling capacity. Also, it was concluded that the design strengths predicted by the current DSM in accordance with the American specification guideline, AISI, was conservative for sturdy sections as these sections can develop plastic moment.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
AISIS100-12 (2010). North American specification for the design of cold-formed steel structural members. AISIS100-12, American Ironand Steel Institute, Washington, D.C.
American Iron and Steel Institute (2005). Distortional Buckling of Cold-Formed Steel Members in Bending. American Iron and Steel Institute, Baltimore, Maryland.
ANSYS (2003). 8.0 Documentation. Element Reference, Element Library.
AS/NZS4600 (2005). Cold-formed steel structures. AS/NZS 4600, Australian/NewZealand standard, Sydney, Australia.
Bock, M., Arrayago, I., Real, E., and Mirambell, E. (2013). “Study of web crippling in ferritic stainless steel cold formed sections.” Thin-Walled Structures, 69, pp. 29–44.
Chen, Y., Chen, X., and Wang, C. (2015). “Experimental and finite element analysis research on cold-formed steel lipped channel beams under web crippling.” Thin-Walled Structures, 87, pp. 41–52.
Design of steel structures-Part 1-3 (1993). EC3: Design of steel structures-Part 1-3 (supplementary rules for coldformed members and sheeting). EuropeanCommittee for Standardization.
Haidarali, M. R. and Nethercot, D. A. (2012). “Local and distortional buckling of cold-formed steel beams with edge-stiffened flanges.” Journal of Constructional Steel Research, 73, pp. 31–42.
Hancock, G. J. (2003). “Cold-formed steel structures.” Journal of Constructional Steel Research, 59(4), pp. 473–487.
Hancock, G. J., Murray, T., and Ellifrit, D. S. (2001). Coldformed steel structures to the AISI specification. CRC Press.
Naderian, H. and Ronagh, H. (2015). “Buckling analysis of thin-walled cold-formed steel structural members using complex finite strip method.” Thin-Walled Structures, 90, pp. 74–83.
Nguyen, N. T., Fung, T. C., and Young, B. (2006). “Strength and behavior of cold-formed steel Z-sections subjected to major axis bending.” Journal of Structural Engineering, 132(10), pp. 1632–1640.
Pham, C. H. and Hancock, G. J. (2013). “Experimental investigation and direct strength design of high-strength, complex C-sections in pure bending.” Journal of Structural Engineering, 139(11), pp. 1842–1852.
Schafer, B. W. (2008). “Review: the direct strength method of cold-formed steel member design.” Journal of Constructional Steel Research, 64(7), pp. 766–778.
Shifferaw, Y. and Schafer, B. (2012). “Inelastic bending capacity of cold-formed steel members.” Journal of Structural Engineering, 138(4), pp. 468–480.
Soliman, M. S. A.-D., Abu-Sena, A. B. B., Darwish, E. E. H., and Saleh, M. S. R. (2013). “Resistance of coldformed steel sections to combined bending and web crippling.” Ain Shams Engineering Journal, 4(3), pp. 435–453.
THIN-WALL (2015). A computer program for cross-section analysis and finite strip buckling analysis and direct strength design of thin-walled structures. Version 2.1.
Young, B. (2005). “Experimental investigation of cold-formed steel lipped angle concentrically loaded compression members.” Journal of Structural Engineering, 131(9), pp. 1390–1396.
Young, B. and Chen, J. (2008). “Design of cold-formed steel built-up closed sections with intermediate stiffeners.” Journal of Structural Engineering, 134(5), pp. 727–737.
Young, B. and Hancock, G. J. (2003). “Compression tests of channels with inclined simple edge stiffeners.” Journal of Structural Engineering, 129(10), pp. 1403–1411.
Young, B. and Yan, J. (2004). “Design of cold-formed steel channel columns with complex edge stiffeners by direct strength method.” Journal of Structural Engineering, 130(11), pp. 1756–1763.
Yu, C. (2012). “Cold-formed steel flexural member with edge stiffened holes: Behavior, optimization, and design.” Journal of Constructional Steel Research, 71, pp. 210–218.
Yu, C. and Schafer, B. W. (2003). “Local buckling tests on cold-formed steel beams.” Journal of Structural Engineering, 129(12), pp. 1596–1606.
Yu, C. and Schafer, B. W. (2006). “Distortional buckling tests on cold-formed steel beams.” Journal of Structural Engineering, 132(4), pp. 515–528.
Yu, C. and Yan, W. (2011). “Effective Width Method for determining distortional buckling strength of cold-formed steel flexural C and Z sections.” Thin-Walled Structures, 49(2), pp. 233–238.
Zhang, J.-H. and Young, B. (2012). “Compression tests of cold-formed steel I-shaped open sections with edge and web stiffeners.” Thin-Walled Structures, 52, pp. 1–11.
Zhang, Y., Wang, C., and Zhang, Z. (2007). “Tests and finite element analysis of pin-ended channel columns with inclined simple edge stiffeners.” Journal of Constructional Steel Research, 63(3), pp. 383–395.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Faridmehr, I., Osman, M.H., Tahir, M.M. et al. Behaviour and design of cold-formed steel C-sections with cover plates under bending. Int J Steel Struct 16, 587–600 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13296-016-6026-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13296-016-6026-9