Performance of Cold-Form Steel (CFS) Sections Under Flexural Action

Abstract

Cold-form steel (CFS) members have become increasingly popular because of its high strength with respect to weight, low conveying costs, and ease of fabrication and erection. Standard CFS sections generally fail as flexural members where high section modulus is required. For such cases, using built-up sections made up of nesting or back-to-back connection could be a viable solution. The present study extensively reviews recent advances in the design and analysis of CFS under flexural behavior. As per the most recent research in the field, it was revealed that CFS sections could benefit from the addition of stiffeners, namely intermediate stiffeners for closed built-up sections and stiffeners at the flange/web junction for open built-up sections, with or without edge stiffeners. In addition, several investigations of the behaviour of different CFS sections were presented. However, further research is required to determine how to analyse the flexural behaviour of open and closed built-up sections using finite element models (FEM).