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

• Advances in Computational Design
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.207-220
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• 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
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.895-905
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• 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
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.545-554
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• 2018

This study presents a novel method of improving the strength and stiffness of cold-formed steel (CFS) beams. Flexural members are primary members in most of the structures. Hence, there is an urgent need in the CFS industry to look beyond the conventional CFS beam sections and develop novel techniques to address the severe local buckling problems that exist in CFS flexural members. The primary objective of this study was to develop new CFS composite beam sections with improved structural performance and economy. This paper presents an experimental study conducted on different CFS composite beams with simply supported end conditions under four point loading. Material properties and geometric imperfections of the models were measured. The test strengths of the models are compared with the design strengths predicted by using Australian/New Zealand Standard for cold-formed steel structures. Furthermore, to ensure high precision testing, a special testing rig was also developed for testing of long span beams. The description of test models, testing rig features and test results are presented here. For better interpretation of results, a comparison of the test results with a hot rolled section is also presented. The test results have shown that the proposed CFS composite beams are promising both in terms of better structural performance as well as economy.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1999.10a
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• pp.206-213
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• 1999

The behavior of composite beams, which are composed of cold-formed steel sheeting and normal strength concrete, have been studied. An analytical method has been developed to trace the nonlinear behavior of composite beams. The nonlinear material properties of steel sheeting, reinforcing steel bar and concrete have been included in the analysis. The nonlinear moment-curvature relation of the composite beam has been described using a cross section analysis method and a simple power model, separately. The load-deflection behavior of the beams has been simulated by step-by-step numerical integration method and is compared with test results.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.353-369
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• 2020

Eight cold-formed thin-walled steel beams were performed to investigate the effect of corrosion damage on the flexural behavior of steel beams. The relationships between failure modes or load-displacement curves and corrosion degree of steel beams were investigated. A series of parametric analysis with more than forty finite element models were also performed with different corrosion degrees, types and locations. The results showed that the reduction of cross-section thickness as well as corrosion pits on the surface would lead to a decline in the stiffness and flexural capacity of steel beams, and gradually intensified with the corrosion degree. The yield load, ultimate load and critical buckling load of the corroded specimen IV-B46-4 decreased by 22.2%, 26% and 45%, respectively. The failure modes of steel beams changed from strength failure to stability failure or brittle fracture with the corrosion degree increasing. In addition, thickness damage and corrosion pits at different locations caused the degradation of flexural capacity, the worst of which was the thickness damage of compression zone. Finally, the method for calculating flexural capacity of corroded cold-formed thin-walled steel beams was also proposed based on experimental investigation and numerical analysis results.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.90 no.2
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• pp.143-157
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• 2024

Cold-formed steel (CFS) I sections are increasingly being used as load-bearing components in building constructions, and such I sections frequently incorporate web holes to facilitate service installation. The economical and structural advantages of these elements have prompted many researchers to investigate the behavior of such structures. Despite numerous studies on the buckling stability of castellated beams, there is a notable absence of experimental investigation into oval castellated beams with stiffeners. This study examines the local buckling of cold-formed steel castellated I-beams stiffened with oval constellations through experimental and numerical analysis. Four specimens are fabricated with and without stiffeners, including parallel, perpendicular, and intersecting types attached to the web portion of the beam, along with cross stiffeners for the oval-shaped openings at the beam ends. Additionally, a numerical model is developed to predict the behavior of castellated beams with oval openings up to failure, considering both material and geometric nonlinearities. Codal analysis is performed using the North American specification for cold-formed steel AISI S-100 and the Australian/New Zealand design code AS/NZS 4600. The anticipated outcomes from numerical analysis, experimental research, and codal analysis are compared and presented. It will be more helpful to the preliminary designers.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.6 no.3 s.21
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• pp.77-86
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• 2006

The stress analysis of cold-formed channel section steel beams under transverse load is presented. The local buckling as well as the lateral buckling effects are included in the analysis. The analytical model is developed based on the thin-walled beam theory, and a one-dimensional finite element model is formulated to solve the analytical model. Numerical results are compared with AISI code. It shows that the proposed model is appropriate for predicting of stress as well as deflection of the cold-formed channel section beam.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.16 no.1 s.68
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• pp.51-60
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• 2004

The stress analysis of cold-formed channel section steel beams under transverse load was conducted. The local buckling effect was included in the analysis using effective area concept. The proposed analytical model is capable of predicting accurate normal stress in the beam due to various behaviors including biaxial bending and warping. It was found to be appropriate for predicting stresses as well as deflection in the beam. A finite element model was developed to solve the analytical model.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.225-241
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• 2024

For several reasons, cold-formed steel (CFS) beams are often manufactured with holes. Nevertheless, because of holes, the reduction in the web area causes a decrease in the bending strength. Edge stiffeners are presently added around the holes to improve the bending strength of flexural members. Therefore, this research studies CFSZ-beams with stiffened holes and investigates how edge stiffener affects bending strength and failure modes. Nonlinear analysis was carried out using ABAQUS software and the developed finite element (FE) model was verified against tests from previous studies. Using the verified FE model, a parametric study of 104 FE models was conducted to investigate the influence of key parameters on bending strength of Z- sections. The results indicated that the effect of holes is less noticeable in very thin Z-sections. Moreover, adding edge stiffeners around the holes improves the flexural capacity of Z-beams and sometimes restores the original bending capacity. Because the computational techniques used to solve the CFS buckling mode with stiffened holes are still unclear, a numerical method using constrained and unconstrained finite strip method (CUFSM) software was proposed to predict the elastic distortional buckling moment for a wide variety of CFSZ-sections with stiffened holes. A numerical method with two procedures was applied and validated. Upon comparison, the numerical method accurately predicted the distortional buckling moment of CFS Z-sections with stiffened holes.