BUCKLING ANALYSIS OF COLD FORMED STEEL CHANNEL SECTIONS WITH AND WITHOUT STIFFENERS

Abstract

The Light gauge cold-formed steel sections being used extensively in residential, industrial and commercial building as secondary load bearing members since last three decadez. In this context a study is being made to analyses C Sections with and without stiffeners to arrive at design strength criterion in compression. The direct strength method of design for cold formed steel sections has been validated over the years through research and the same has been incorporated in the standard codes of practice in the countries like USA and Australia. ABAQUS and CUFSM has been extensively used to perform Finite Element analysis and Finite Strip method of thin
walled cold formed steel sections and the results are compared to each other. The analysis is being done on CUFSM and ABAQUS. The design strength curves will be arrived at using direct strength method. This is because cold-formed steel sections have a very high strength to weight ratio compared with thicker hot-rolled steel sections, and their manufacturing process is simple and cost-effective. In this context, a study is being made to analyze C sections with and without stiffeners to arrive at design strength criterion in compression members. In this study, the behavior of C sections with and without stiffeners under the action of axial loads has been carried out with various thickness and depths. In ABAQUS, the loads are applied on both ends. The clamped end conditions are considered