Abstract
Background: Cold formed steel channels are widely used in building construction. Advances in material technology contributed to the production of very thin cold formed steel channel sections with high yield strength that can be utilized in the industry in order to achieve light weight design. Extensive research work was conducted in the past three decades to explore the behavior of channel members used in various engineering applications and improve the design procedures.
Objectives: The paper presents a comprehensive review of recent contributions and patents for the analysis and design of thin walled steel channel members.
Method: The paper reviews engineering work developed in the past three decades to detail the behavior of channel members under various types of loadings. North American and European design code provisions are discussed. Empirical and simplified analytical models that were developed to estimate the channel ultimate strength for various limit states are also described.
Results: Design investigations for local/distortional buckling effective width, influence of perforations, splice connections, fire performance, optimization, composite channel sections and defective channels are discussed.
Conclusion: A state of the art “reference-manual” is presented for the analysis and design of cold formed steel channels that can be effectively utilized by practicing Engineers for various industrial applications.
Keywords: Cold formed steel channels, finite element, steel design, plates, residual stress, fatigue cracks, imperfections, corrosion, fire performance, composite channels, stiffened plates.
Graphical Abstract