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Abstract
1. Introduction
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E-mail address: jmdavies@fs1.eng.man.ac.uk (J.M. Davies).
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268 J.M. Davies / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 55 (2000) 267288
technical developments and some of the resulting new applications. It is shown that
as a result of current trends, cold-formed sections are becoming more slender and
more highly stiffened and therefore more prone to local and distortional buckling.
It then follows that there is a consequential demand for improved design procedures.
These generally take the form of calculation models suitable for incorporation in
design codes. The available approaches to the design of cold formed sections are
reviewed in some detail and some possible improvements in design codes are antici-
pated.
The trend to higher quality steel is primarily seen in an increased yield stress and
there has been a continuing increase in the yield stress of typical mass-produced
products such as purlins, sheeting and decking in recent years. The steel used for
such applications now typically has a yield stress in the range 280 to 550 N/mm2.
This trend of increasing yield stress is likely to continue. There are also some steels
available with ultra-high yield stress. These are generally only economic for special
applications such as lightweight bridges for the military. In this context, Hoglund
[2] discusses the welding of quenched and tempered (QT) steel produced in Sweden
with a yield strength up to 1100 N/mm2. The application of steels with a very high
yield stress is often limited by considerations of stiffness and Nippon Steel in Japan
are reputed to have produced steels with a 30% increase of Youngs modulus in the
direction of rolling though with a corresponding decrease in the transverse direction.
Steels with better fire resistance, including less creep at elevated temperature, are
also being introduced.
webs, the (perforated) uprights in pallet racks, slotted wall studs and the 2nd and
3rd generation decking profiles. The use of high strength steels in thinner, highly
stiffened sections inevitably leads to more demanding design requirements. The
consequences of this are considered in more detail later in this paper.
Undoubtedly, one of the primary reasons for the increase in the practical usage of
cold-formed sections is improved corrosion resistance. This is the result of improved
galvanising and other coating technology, bearing in mind that the protective coating
system is undamaged by the cold-forming process. There is also an increasing use
of cold-formed stainless steel. A 12% chromium steel with no nickel has been used
for housing in Japan. This steel does not have the shiny surface usually associated
with stainless steel but is less prone to rust.
Modern rolling lines are generally computer controlled from the design office so
that not only can highly accurate complex shapes of precise lengths be produced to
order but also holes, perforations and slots (e.g. web openings for services) can be
punched in precise positions during the rolling process. A significant recent develop-
ment is the automatic end forming of beams at the time of rolling, as shown in Fig. 2.
The rolling of transverse stiffeners in the wide top flange of 3rd generation decking
profiles, as shown in Fig. 3, has been available for some time. Similar technology
allows the rolling of vertical web stiffeners in beam sections. Even more complex
sections may now be formed in two or more parts in which the individual parts are
formed and assembled using high frequency welding in a single operation. This
may involve the combination of different material qualities and thicknesses in a
single component.
3. Developments in applications
components of this type and their evolution will undoubtedly continue. However,
the main current and foreseeable developments are in a rather different sphere.
Although this is not yet so evident in Europe, in other parts of the developed
world there is an extremely rapid development in the use of cold-formed framing
systems for houses and other low-rise construction. This development is being led
by the USA where the rise may be said to be exponential. Pekoz [1] states that,
in the USA, about 500 homes were built in light gauge steel in 1992. This number
rose to 15 000 in 1993 and 75 000 in 1994. A further five-fold increase is estimated
by 2002. The primary framing elements for this form of construction are cold-formed
steel wall studs and floor joists. Light gauge steel roof trusses or rafters are also
used. There is a vast amount of literature on the subject, a good deal of which is
summarised in the Residential Steel Framing Manual published by the American
Iron and Steel Institute [6].
Surprisingly, this major evolution has been accompanied by little development in
cold-formed section technology. The majority of steel framing systems have evolved
from timber framed solutions and have merely involved replacing timber sections by
cold formed steel sections of similar overall size connected together by conventional
methods such as bolting and welding. More recently, advantage has been taken of
the clinching connection methods discussed in Section 2.5, particularly where factory
prefabrication is used. A recent important development is the use of wall studs with
perforated webs [7,8]. These studs have been developed in the Scandinavian coun-
tries in order to reduce thermal bridging in external walls. The web perforations take
the form of arrays of slots which, of course, significantly weaken the web in trans-
verse bending and shear. This has several effects, including a reduced resistance to
distortional buckling, and thus leads to rather complex design problems.
Another significant development is the use of cassette walls [9]. These have the
advantage of providing a weather proof wall as well as a structural frame and avoid
many of the stability problems of stud wall construction. They also act as a shear
diaphragm with regard to horizontal (wind) load and thus avoid the necessity of
providing bracing systems in the plane of the walls. This leads to much simpler
detailing and more rapid construction.
Closely associated with the trend outlined above is the related trend to maximise
prefabrication in the factory. Using jigs and appropriate jointing technology such as
clinching and Rosettes, cold-formed steel components can be rapidly and accurately
assembled into complete structural units for delivery to the site. Such units can take
the form of wall and floor panels and roof trusses. Even more dramatic is the increas-
ing factory prefabrication of complete building modules such as complete hotel
rooms. These may be built and fitted out with bathroom units, furniture and fittings
before being shipped to the site complete and requiring only the connection of exter-
272 J.M. Davies / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 55 (2000) 267288
nal services [10]. In the UK, most out of town hotels and motels are now built in
this way.
Steel sections may be subject to one of four generic types of buckling, namely
local, global, distortional and shear. Local buckling is particularly prevalent in cold-
formed sections and is characterised by the relatively short wavelength buckling of
individual plate elements. The term global buckling embraces Euler and lateral-
J.M. Davies / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 55 (2000) 267288 273
The research and development engineer has a range of tools available to him when
considering the design of a new range of cold-formed sections or new applications
of existing sections. Evidently, most cases of practical importance are covered by
modern design codes such as Eurocode 3: Part 1.3 [11]; The American Specification
[12], The Australian and New Zealand Standard [13] and the British Standard BS
5950: Part 5 [14]. However, cases may arise which are not adequately covered by
the available codes or where the codes are over-conservative and more efficient
designs can be obtained by an investment into a more detailed design. The available
design technologies for such situations may be summarised as follows.
4.2.1. Testing
Historically, design by testing has been more widely used for cold-formed sections
than for most other building components. There are a number of reasons for this,
both practical and economic. As analytical methods have improved, testing is now
used less frequently. However, it is still widely used for particular cases such as:
purlins clad with sheeting; perforated racking uprights; (slotted) studs with sheathing
attached; composite decks; sandwich panels etc. It is notable that almost all of these
examples involve the interaction of light gauge steel components with other materials
or parts of the structure as discussed above. These situations are, of course, notori-
274 J.M. Davies / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 55 (2000) 267288
ously difficult to analyse satisfactorily although much progress is being made in this
area. Other situations which are difficult to analyse and where testing may still be
appropriate are those involving significant holes or openings through the member
and those where economic design requires consideration of ultimate limit states in
which there is interaction between buckling and yielding.
Generalised Beam Theory (GBT) has been described elsewhere [16,17] and space
precludes a full description here. For our purposes, it is important to note that the
essential concept of GBT is the separation of the behaviour of a prismatic member
into a series of orthogonal displacement modes. It is a particular strength of GBT
that these modes may be considered separately or in any combination in order to
investigate different aspects of the structural response. In GBT, each mode has an
equation and, in second-order format, neglecting the shear deformation terms, the
equation for mode k is:
n n
where the left superscript k denotes the mode and: kC is the generalised warping
constant; kD is the generalised torsional constant; and kB is the transverse bending
stiffness.
These are the generalised section properties which depend only on the cross-sec-
tion geometry. In addition:
ijk
are second-order section properties which relate the cross-section deformations
to the stress distributions,
E and G are the modulus of elasticity and the shear modulus respectively,
k
V and kW are the generalised deformation resultant and stress resultant,
k
q is the uniformly distributed load and
n is the number of modes in the analysis.
276 J.M. Davies / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 55 (2000) 267288
For simple cross-sections, the section properties and the ijk values may be calcu-
lated manually but this is cumbersome. In general, this task is best carried out by
computer and a general program has been prepared by the author and his colleague
Dr C. Jiang and has been made available in the public domain.
If the right hand side terms kq of the equation system (1) are zero, the solution
gives the critical stress resultant iW. In general, this requires the solution of an eigen-
value problem in which the analyst is free to choose which modes to include in his
analysis. Various mode interactions can be studied in this way for prismatic members
of varying lengths.
When a constant stress resultant, such as an axial load or a constant bending
moment, is applied along a member which is assumed to buckle in a half sine wave
of wavelength l, GBT allows some particularly simple results to be obtained. Thus
the critical stress resultant for single mode buckling is [17]:
i,k
Wcr
1
ikk
p2 k
l2
E CGk
D
l2 k
p2
B (2)
k
lp
E kC
k
B
0.25
(4)
5.1. The application of GBT to the buckling of a column section under axial load
The local and distortional buckling modes are clearly identified and their buckling
Table 1
Buckling behaviour in the individual modes
5 52.1 31.2
6 41.3 52.4
7 29.2 309.4
8 25.6 486.8
9 6.31 38.7
10 5.46 61.4
11 5.45 61.3
In general, with GBT, the critical distortional buckling mode is symmetrical and
can be easily identified. Eq. (3) then provides a simple design expression based on
the calculated section properties. However, at the present time, GBT is not readily
available to structural designers and it is appropriate to consider other simplified
approaches. Not surprisingly, as discussed in Section 6.2 of this paper, other authors
have attempted to model the symmetrical mode 5 as shown in Fig. 4, though without
a formal evaluation of the alternative modes revealed by GBT.
The buckling behaviour of beams bent about the major axis differs from that of
columns in a number of respects. Fig. 6(a) shows a typical cold formed section beam.
Ignoring considerations of local buckling, which do not add anything to the argument
here, the section has 6 natural nodes and therefore there are 6 orthogonal modes of
buckling. These are shown in Fig. 6(b) and are 4 rigid-body modes and 2 distor-
tional modes.
When the beam is bent about the major axis, it is well known that individual
lateral and torsional modes have no significance and the only rigid-body buckling
mode is a combination of modes 3 and 4, namely lateral torsional buckling. In the
same way, the distortional modes 5 (symmetrical) and 6 (antisymmetrical) have no
individual significance and the only distortional mode is a combination of the two
such that most of the distortion takes place in the compression flange with the flange
in tension playing a minor role. Assuming again that the bucking mode is a half
sine wave, GBT again allows a simple calculation for the case of pure bending. The
relevant buckling curves are shown in Fig. 7.
The above results are typical and the general conclusions are similar to those
for columns:
Fig. 7. Buckling curves for a lipped channel section beam in uniform bending.
The critical distortion mode is a rotation of the compression flange about its junc-
tion with the web. Distortional buckling modes have intermediate wavelengths.
For this type of problem (channel section beam bent about the minor axis) there
is little interaction between distortional and lateral-torsional (rigid-body) buckling
and it is sufficient to consider distortional buckling in isolation.
Unrestrained beams are, of course, relatively rare. It is more usual for cold-formed
section beams to be at least partly restrained by the floor or roof that they support.
An important practical case is that of a purlin supporting a lightweight roof. In this,
and other similar cases, the purlin receives both lateral and torsional restraint to one
flange. It is an important feature of GBT that such restraints can be incorporated
into the member properties [19]. Consider the channel section from above with the
upper flange restrained in position laterally and restrained torsionally by a spring
with a specified stiffness cq. This is a typical representation of a purlin. Fig. 8 shows
the orthogonal modes of deformation, computed with the aid of GBT, for the purlin
section shown in Fig. 6 and for the typical case of cq =1.0 kNcm/radian per cm.
Mode 1 is axial strain which is not relevant for a purlin in bending and the remain-
ing modes are each associated with a buckling mode. Mode 3 is global buckling by
bending about the major axis which is unaffected by the restraints. Due to the exist-
ence of the restraints, the mode of buckling by bending about the minor axis of the
section is eliminated and the mode of pure torsion about the shear centre is turned
into a combination of torsion and distortion (mode 2). Modes 4 and 5 are the distor-
tional modes.
Under downward load, such a purlin usually fails in distortional buckling with a
J.M. Davies / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 55 (2000) 267288 281
combination of modes 4 and 5. However, for the important case of uplift load, there
is a transition from distortional buckling to the combined torsional-distortional mode
as the span increases. The point of transition depends on the amount of restraint
which is received from the cladding and, if this is sufficiently great, the torsional
distortional mode may not occur at all, regardless of the span. GBT can, of course,
deal rather elegantly with this complexity.
Local buckling of thin-walled sections has been known for many years and has
been well researched. The basic phenomenon is illustrated in Fig. 9 which shows
local buckling in a cassette column with an intermediate stiffener in the wide flange.
As shown, plate elements which are adequately stiffened along both longitudinal
edges tend to buckle into approximately square waves. For economic design, it is
essential to consider the post-buckled condition and, in this context, the primary
building block for cold formed section design is the concept of effective width
beff illustrated in Fig. 10.
The usual effective width formula is the semi-empirical formula due to Winter
[11]:
s Ek
seff bp seff
l p 1.052 (6)
cr t s
where seff is the maximum compressive stress in the plate element; scr is the critical
stress for elastic buckling of the plate element; E is the Youngs modulus; ks is the
buckling factor which = 4.0 for a simply supported plate in uniform compression
and 0.43 for an outstand plate element with one edge free.
Elements stiffened on one side only are much less stable and can also be treated
by an analogous effective width approach. However, such unstiffened elements rarely
arise in practice because the free edges are usually restrained by lips. The modern
tendency is to use compound lips as illustrated in Fig. 1 (Multibeam Mark III), Figs.
2 and 9.
Eurocode 3: Part 1.3 [11] gives some comprehensive rules for the determination
of effective widths under different stress conditions. In principle, the effective widths
of the individual plate elements may be combined to give an effective section and
member design completed using conventional techniques. However, this apparent
simplicity conceals a number of difficulties. As illustrated by Fig. 9, individual plate
elements do not buckle in isolation but interact with each other. Although some
codes (e.g. BSI 1987 [14]) give an approximate treatment of this phenomenon, it
can only be dealt with accurately by a whole-section analysis.
Fig. 10. Effective width beff of plane element stiffened along both edges.
J.M. Davies / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 55 (2000) 267288 283
Furthermore, Fig. 9 suggests that both the intermediate stiffener in the wide flange
and the compound lip stiffeners are fully effective so that they remain straight
during local buckling of the plate elements. With modern, highly stiffened sections,
this is often not the case. Stiffeners may be partially effective so that stiffener buck-
ling interacts with local plate buckling. Highly stiffened decking profiles are a special
case for which some complex but accurate design procedures have been derived
[20]. Eurocode 3: Part 1.3 [11] gives some design rules for more general situations
but these are complicated to use and not particularly accurate [21]. Evidently, this
is another situation where design based on an analysis of the whole section is to
be preferred.
and the value of kx was assumed to be zero. The key to evaluating this model is to
consider the rotational spring stiffness kf and the half buckling wavelength l, while
taking account of symmetry. Lau and Hancock [22] give a detailed analysis in which
the effect of the local buckling stress in the web and of shear and flange distortion
were taken into account in determining expressions for kf and l. These are too
complex to reproduce here but a direct analogy with Eq. (4) may be noted.
Davies and Jiang [23] have carried out a detailed calibration of this model against
the more accurate whole-section analysis offered by Generalised Beam Theory
(GBT). They noted the sensitivity of this model to the value of the spring stiffness
kf and were able to propose a significant improvement.
Fig. 12. Comparison of design expressions with the results given by GBT for channel section beams.
J.M. Davies / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 55 (2000) 267288 285
where c is the reduction factor for buckling with respect to the unbuckled capacity;
a is an imperfection factor and l is the relative slenderness in the relevant buck-
ling mode.
286 J.M. Davies / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 55 (2000) 267288
In Eurocode 3: Part 1.3 [11], this equation is applied to the flexural buckling of
columns and to the lateral torsional buckling of beams with l equal to P/Pcr and
M/Mcr respectively. Local buckling may be allowed for by basing the yield load
(or stress) on the effective cross section. Up to the present time, this part of the
calculation has been based on conventional (effective width) approaches with the
problems discussed in some detail above.
In principle, Eq. (7) is equally valid when used to allow second-order elastic GBT
solutions to be used to give reliable estimates of the failure loads for both beams
and columns in a wider range of practical situations. However, the AyrtonPerry
approach does not include any allowance for post-buckling so that it is likely to be
over-conservative when applied to situations where local buckling is significant. It
is with this in mind that Schafer and Pekoz [28] have recently proposed the direct
strength approach.
The direct strength method recognises that the available models for local and
distortional buckling design are far from simple and have significant limitations. It
also recognises that the current trend is to increase the complexity of section shapes
and also increases the complexity of the required mathematical models. It therefore
proposes a formal design procedure based on elastic bucking solutions for the com-
plete cross-section. The particular characteristic of this procedure is that it also
recognises that, for economic design, it is necessary to take advantage of the post-
buckling strength. It therefore takes the conventional effective width Eqs. (5) and
(6) and applies these to the complete cross-section. The method has been initially
expressed in terms of flexural members but it is clearly also applicable to members
under axial compression. Thus, the design moment capacity is given by:
MnrMy(rS)fyb
where
The elastic buckling moment Mcr for local or distortional buckling may be readily
obtained from either the finite strip method or GBT using half sine wave displace-
ment functions. The proposals of Schafer and Pekoz [28] offer two possible
additional refinements to the basic procedure described above. Noting that there may
be decreased post-buckling capacity in the case of distortional buckling, a reduction
factor is suggested for this case. Alternatively, a modified equation may be used for
r in order to obtain better agreement with the experimental results.
The above proposal, and the possible refinements, have been calibrated against
the AISI [12] specification for a total of 574 test results for unrestrained beams
obtained by 17 researchers. It is shown that, as well as being simpler, the initial
J.M. Davies / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 55 (2000) 267288 287
form of the direct strength method is conservative and at least as accurate as the
AISI specification. The reduction factor for distortional buckling does not improve
matters but the second proposed improvement results in a distinct improvement on
the AISI design rules.
8. Conclusions
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