International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology (IJCIET)

Volume 9, Issue 3, March 2018, pp. 969–976, Article ID: IJCIET_09_03_097

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ISSN Print: 0976-6308 and ISSN Online: 0976-6316

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FLEXURAL BEHAVIOUR OF COLD FORM

STEEL SECTIONS SUBJECTED TO STATIC
LOADING
Sivaranjani.S, Nalini.S and Annapurani.M
Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering,
Vel Tech Dr RR & Dr SR University, Chennai, Tamilnadu, India

ABSTRACT
At present, Cold Formed Steel (CFS) sections such as ‘C’ and ‘Z’ sections are
commonly used in structural forming. But they suffer from certain buckling modes in
open sections primarily due to flexural buckling. It is therefore important that these
buckling modes are either delayed or eliminated to increase the ultimate load carrying
capacity of these members. For this purpose hat section is suggested here and the
strength performance of hat section is compared with channel section. In the present
study the flexural behaviour of Cold Formed Steel hat section and channel section
beams subjected to midpoint static loading is analyzed using Finite Element Analysis
(FEA). For this purpose a specimens of 1m length and 4mm thickness is investigated
for the buckling performance. This buckling performance is carried out by ANSYS
10.0 software and the results of both sections are compared with the experimental test
done in UTM.
Keywords: Cold formed steel, flexural buckling, Finite Element Analysis, ANSYS.
Cite this Article: Sivaranjani.S, Nalini.S and Annapurani.M, Flexural behaviour of
Cold Form Steel Sections Subjected to Static Loading, International Journal of Civil
Engineering and Technology, 9(3), 2018, pp. 969–976.
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1. INTRODUCTION
Cold-formed steel is the common term for products made by rolling or pressing thin gauges of
sheet steel into goods. Cold-formed steel goods are created by the working of sheet steel using
stamping, rolling or presses to deform the sheet into a usable product. The light gauge steel
members are defined as structural members cold- formed to shape in rolls or press-braked
steel sheets or strips or plates or flats. The strength of elements used for design is usually
governed by buckling. They are commonly called “Light gauge sections” since their thickness
has been normally less than 12.0 mm. However, more recent developments have allowed
sections up to 25 mm to be cold formed, and open sections up to approximately 8mm thick
are becoming common in building construction. The steel used for these sections may have a
yield stress ranging from 250 Mpa to 550 Mpa. The yield value is increased by 15%-30% due

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 Sivaranjani.S, Nalini.S and Annapurani.M

to prework (initial deformation) [1]. The higher yield stress steels are also becoming more
common as steel manufacturers produce high strength steel more efficiently.
CFS members are commonly used as purlins, cladding rails, sheeting rails, wall studs,
floor joists, sheet sand decks, etc. in the building industry. Some of the qualities of these
members that create cost savings in construction are light in weight, high strength and
stiffness, accurate section dimensions, and easy of prefabrication and mass production [2]. In
market various shapes of these products are available „C‟, „Z‟ and „hat‟ sections are
predominantly used in light load and medium span situations such as roof systems.
Today cold-formed steel sections finds many applications in different types of industries,
various types of equipments, construction of car and Motor vehicle bodies, railway coaches,
storage racks, highway products and Bridge construction.

2. PRELIMINARY TEST
The development of an appropriate analytical model to predict the behavior of Cold-Formed
Steel (CFS) structural members requires a correct representation of the corresponding material
characteristics. Hence it is essential to find out the mechanical properties of the CFS steel
sections. For this a test named Coupon Test is carried out here.
The tensile coupons consisted of 2 standard flat coupons, length 180mm width 25mm.
The standard flat coupons were dimensioned according guidelines provided by IS 1608:2005
and ISO 6892:1998, “Metallic materials – Tensile Testing at Ambient Temperature”.
The tensile coupons were tested in a KN UTM machine. The coupons were mounted in
the testing machine using the gripping devices and aligned with vertical axis of the machine.
The axial load was applied at a constant rate and the values are noted and the stress values are
tabulated. As a resulting Engineering stress-strain curves are drawn.

A. Coupon Specimens

Before Test After Test

Figure 1 Coupon test specimens

B. Coupon Test
Data:
Length of plate =180mm
Width of plate = 25mm
Thickness of plate = 4mm
Cross section area = 100mm2

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 Flexural behaviour of Cold Form Steel Sections Subjected to Static Loading

Table 1 Coupon Test 1

Load (kn) Stress (mpa) Strain

2 20
16 160 0.0425
30 300

Table 2 Coupon Test 2

Load (kn) Stress (mpa) Strain

2 20
16 160 0.044
30 340

Table 3 Coupon Test Results

Young's modulus f y (Mpa) f y (Mpa) Yielding

'E'x105(Mpa) (0.1 %) (0.2%) Type
2.05 290 428 G
2.07 292 402 G
*G- Good yielding

3. NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION
The Finite Element Method (FEM) (its practical application often known as Finite Element
Analysis (FEA) is a numerical technique for finding approximate solutions of partial
differential equations (PDE) as well as integral equations. In FEA, a complicated structure is
divided into smaller elements. Each element is based on physical laws using numerical
computing techniques. All the elements are assembled into a big matrix of algebraic
equations. This matrix is usually solved by computer. Finally, the solution is obtained
according to the Engineer‟s requirements.

A. ANSYS Programme
ANSYS is a commercially available finite element analysis software package for FEA. The
finite element program of ANSYS 10.0 workbench version is used to develop a finite element
model, which aimed to simulate the behaviour and strength of the cold-formed steel C and hat
sections.

B. Boundary Conditions
The specimens of 1m length and 4 mm thickness of „channel‟ and „hat‟ sections are modeled
and analysed for the strength performance. It was found that good simulation results could be
obtained by using the element (mesh) size of approximately 2.5x2.5 mm (length by width) for
the web, flanges and lips. The ends of the specimens are simply supported with hinges and
rollers. The bearing length of 100mm is kept on either side of the specimen.

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 Sivaranjani.S, Nalini.S and Annapurani.M

C. Static analysis of Channel Section

Figure 2 At the load of 49kN

D. Static Analysis of Hat Section

Figure 3 At the load of 59kN

4. EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS
In order to investigate the flexural-buckling performance of cold-formed steel sections (CFS)
UTM is used here. The main aim of our experiment is to find the load carring capacity of the
beams and secondly to measure the vertical and horizontal deflections and to draw load-
deflection graphs.

A. Materials Used

Figure 4 Before & After painting

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 Flexural behaviour of Cold Form Steel Sections Subjected to Static Loading

B. Methodology
The beams are prepared initially. It is ensured that the steel beams are of free from rust and
painted for getting the clear view of deflection and all. The schematic procedure of the
experiment of CFS beams for buckling of beam is as follows.
 Initially the beam is placed in the UTM machine with its position.
 Strain variations in the cross section is observed at midpoint of the beam,
 We do the measurement at mid-span and the strain gauges are fixed in the vertical and
lateral direction to beam.
 The strain indicators can be fine-tuned for zero at starting. Similarly auto adjustments
for deflection measurements are made.
 Now, loading is done and deflections are tabulated
 Similarly the experiment is repeated with increment of loads and the readings are
tabulated. It is continued until the beam fails and the final load is noted.

Figure 5 Before & After loading - Channel section

Figure 6 Before & After loading - Hat section

C. Flexural tests on CFS Sections

1. Flexural tests on CFS ‘C’ Channel Section
Data:
Depth of web (h w) = 94mm
Breadth of flange (bf ) = 52mm
Thickness of plate (t) = 4mm
Span (L) = 1000mm
Moment of inertia (Ix) = 2.1 x 10 6 mm 4
Section modulus (Zx) = 1.3 x 10 5 mm 3

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 Sivaranjani.S, Nalini.S and Annapurani.M

Table 4 Deflection Measurement

Load Deflection Measurements (mm)

S.No
(kN) Vertical Lateral
1 10 (min) 7 2
2 30 (middle) 34 9
3 46 (max) 47 12

Figure 7 Load vs Vertical Deflection

From this graph we can say that the vertical deflection of the section is deeply increasing
from 20kN to 25kN. Final vertical deflection is of 27mm.

Figure 8 Load vs Lateral Deflection

The lateral deflection of the section starts from 5kN and increasing deeply from 35kN to
40kN. Final lateral deflection is 12mm.

2. Flexural tests on CFS ‘Hat’ Section

Data:
Depth of web (h w) = 94mm
Breadth of flange (bf ) = 52mm
Depth of lip (d1 ) = 32mm
Thickness of plate (t) = 4mm
Span (L) = 1000mm
Moment of inertia (Ix) = 1.53 x 106 mm 4
Section modulus (Zx) = 1.6 x 10 5 mm 3

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 Flexural behaviour of Cold Form Steel Sections Subjected to Static Loading

Table 5 Deflection measurement

Load Deflection Measurements (mm)

S.No
(kN) Vertical Lateral
1 15 (min) 4 2
2 35 (middle) 16 5
3 65 (max) 33 8

Figure 9 Load vs Vertical Deflection

The response to the load given by hat section starts from 10kN. A constant deflection
occurred in the load range of 27kN. 34mm is the final vertical deflection.

Figure 10 Load vs lateral deflection

The hat section shows its lateral deflection from 10kN. A constant deflection is occurred
in the loads of 50kN to 60kN. Overall lateral deflection is 8 mm.

5. DISCUSSIONS
Table 6 Comparision table

Channel
Descriptions Hat section
section
Dimension(mm) 94 x 52 x 4 94 x 52 x 32 x 4
Load Bearing Capacity (kN) 46 65
Vertical Min(mm) 4 2
deflection Max(mm) 47 33
Lateral Min(mm) 2 2
deflection Max(mm) 12 8

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 Sivaranjani.S, Nalini.S and Annapurani.M

From this table VI, we can say that, the hat section takes 41% more load than that of
channel section. The ability of resistance against vertical loading in hat section is 42% more
than the channel section. Also hat section shows 50% resistance against lateral deflection
than the channel section.

6. RESULTS
 It is clear that the hat section is stable against more load than the channel section.
 Deflection occurred in the hat section is less than the channel section.
 While considering both vertical and lateral deflection, lateral deflection is less than
that of vertical deflection in HAT and CHANNEL section.
 But the cost of making of hat section is more the channel section. Apart from this cost
consideration hat section is quite sound than channel section.

REFERENCES
[1] M.S. Deepak, R. Kandasamy and R. Thenmozhi, Investigation On Lateral- Torsional
Buckling Performance Of Cold Formed Steel „C‟ Channel Sections. International Journal
of Emerging Trends in engineering and development, Issue 2, vol. 4 (2012).
[2] Wen Yu Wei, Cold Formed Steel Structures Design and Analysis Construction, Tata Mc
craw Hill Book Company (2002).
[3] Asim Kasim and Hojiat Adeli, Global Optimum Design of Cold Formed Steel Hat- Shape
Beams, Thin Walled structure (1999).
[4] P.Avery, M. Mahendren and A. Nasir, Flexural Capacity of Hollow Flange Beams,
Journal of Construction Steel Research (2000).
[5] M. Bogdan Put, Yong-Lin Pi and N.S. Trahair, Lateral Buckling Tests on Cold Formed
Channel Beams. Structural Engineering, pp 125 (2011).
[6] B. Gangadhara Prusty Free Vibration and Buckling Response of Hat- Stiffened Composite
Panels under General Loading. International journal of mechanical science, Vol.50 (2008).
[7] Haming wang, Yaochun Zhang, Experimental and Numerical Investigation of C-section
Flexural Members. Constructional Steel Research (2009).
[8] G.J Hancock, Cold-Formed Steel Structures. Journal of Constructional Steel Research
(2003).
[9] IS 801-1975 Code of Practice for Use of Cold-Formed Light Gauge Steel Structural
Members in General Building Construction.
[10] IS800-2007 Code of Practice for General Construction in Steel.

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