Thin-Walled Structures 44 (2006) 314320 www.elsevier.

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Analysis and design of cold-formed steel channels subjected to combined bending and web crippling
Wei-Xin Ren a,*, Sheng-En Fang a,b, Ben Young c
a

Department of Civil Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan Province 410075, Peoples Republic of China b E.T.S.de Ingenieros Industriales, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Madrid 28006, Spain c Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China Received 15 July 2005; received in revised form 7 March 2006; accepted 20 March 2006 Available online 4 May 2006

Abstract The channel failures due to combined bending and web crippling may occur at the highly concentrated interior loading when there is no load stiffener in cold-formed thin-walled steel beams. This paper presents accurate nite element models to predict the behavior and ultimate strengths of cold-formed steel channels subjected to pure bending as well as combined bending and web crippling. Both geometric and material nonlinearities are considered in the nite element analysis. The nonlinear nite element models are veried against experimental results of coldformed steel channels subjected to pure bending as well as combined bending and web crippling. The nite element analytical results show a good agreement with the experimental results in terms of the ultimate loads and moments, failure modes and web load-deformation curves thus validating the accuracy of the nite element models. The veried nite element models are then used for an extensive parametric study of different channel dimensions. The channel strengths predicted from the parametric study are compared with the design strengths calculated from the North American Specication for cold-formed steel structures. It is shown that the design rules in the North American Specication are generally conservative for channel sections with unstiffened anges having the web slenderness ranged from 7.8 to 108.5 subjected to combined bending and web crippling. It is demonstrated that the nonlinear nite element analysis by using the veried nite element models against test results is an effective way to predict the ultimate strengths of cold-formed thin-walled steel members. q 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Bending; Cold-formed steel channels; Design specication; Finite element analysis; Interaction; Nonlinearity; Thin-walled structures; Web crippling

1. Introduction The failure of cold-formed steel channels subjected to combined bending and web crippling may occur when there is no load stiffener in cold-formed steel beams under highly concentrated interior forces. The cold-formed channels without transverse stiffeners against such loading are more susceptible to failure because of the added bending moment, which may obviously reduce the ultimate web crippling strengths of channels [1]. Cold-formed steel sections are usually thinner than hot-rolled sections and have modes of failure and deformation, which are not commonly encountered in normal structural steel design, and so corresponding design specications are required to provide a guideline for the design of
* Corresponding author. Tel.: C86 731 2654349; fax: C86 731 5571736. E-mail address: renwx@mail.csu.edu.cn (W.-X. Ren). URL: http://bridge.csu.edu.cn (W.-X. Ren).

0263-8231/$ - see front matter q 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.tws.2006.03.009

cold-formed thin-wall structural members [2]. The design rules used in the Australian/New Zealand Standard [3] and the North American Specication [4] for cold-formed steel structures subjected to combined bending and web crippling are empirical in nature based on a limited number of specimens tested in the laboratory, and thus the design rules are only applicable for a specic range of web slenderness and material properties. As the appearance of new materials and the improvement of coldforming techniques, the material strength and sheet thickness of cold-formed steel channels could be increased. Thus, the applicability of the design rules to the cold-formed steel channels subjected to combined bending and web crippling needs to be investigated. For that purpose, a series of tests on cold-formed high strength steel channels subjected to combined bending and web crippling were carried out by Young and Hancock [5]. The web slenderness of the tested channels was stocky ranged from 15.3 to 45.0. The tests were conducted under the loading conditions specied in the Australian/New Zealand Standard [3] and American Specication [6] for cold-formed steel structures.

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The test results demonstrated that the design strengths predicted by these specications were generally conservative for the tested channels. Several tools are available when considering the analysis and design of cold-formed sections such as testing, classical methods based on explicit solutions of the governing differential equations, nite element method, and nite strip method [7]. Among these methods, the nite element method is mostly used in dealing with both geometrical and material nonlinearities. Finite element analysis (FEA) of cold-formed steel structures is increasingly important in engineering practice for its relatively inexpensive and time efciency compared with laboratory experiments, especially when a parametric study of cross-section geometries is involved [8]. Thus, the numerical investigation based on nonlinear nite element method is an effective way to solve engineering problems. The key of numerical investigation is that the validity of the nite element model. The material and geometric nonlinearities as well as the complex boundary conditions bring the difculty to establish an accurate nite element model. The objective of this paper is intended to present analysis and design of the cold-formed high strength steel channels subjected to combined bending and web crippling. The nite element program ANSYSw [9] was used to develop accurate nonlinear nite element models for the numerical analysis. The 3D nite element models were established based on the measured material properties obtained from tensile coupon tests where the material nonlinearity is taken into account. The developed nite element models were carefully calibrated against the tests of channel sections in terms of the ultimate loads, failure modes and load versus web deformation curves. The veried nite element models were then used for an extensive parametric study for a wide range of channel dimensions with the web slenderness (h/t) ranged from 7.8 to 108.5. The results obtained from the numerical investigation were compared with design predictions. The structural behavior of cold-formed steel channels in terms of strength and stiffness is quantied rationally for general design. Consequently, the study provides understanding to the structural performance of cold-formed steel channels subjected to combined bending and web crippling. 2. Description of laboratory tests A test program described by Young and Hancock [5,10] provided the experimental ultimate loads and moments, failure modes, load versus web deformation curves and interaction curves for cold-formed steel channels subjected to pure bending, pure web crippling as well as combined bending and web crippling. The channel specimens were tested using the loading conditions specied in the Australian/New Zealand Standard [3] and American Specication [6] for cold-formed steel structures. The test specimens were cold-rolled from structural steel sheets having a nominal yield stress of 450 MPa, a nominal thicknesses ranged from 4 to 6 mm, a nominal depth of the webs ranged from 75 to 300 mm, and

y x t ri bf
Fig. 1. Geometry and symbol denition of cross-section of channel specimen.

a nominal ange width ranged from 40 to 90 mm. The web slenderness (h/t) values ranged from 15.3 to 45.0. The crosssection geometry and symbol denition of channel specimens are as shown in Fig. 1. The test arrangement of pure bending is shown in Fig. 2(a) where two channel specimens were used to provide the symmetric loading. Hinge and roller supports were simulated by half rounds and Teon pads. The simply supported specimens were loaded symmetrically at two points to the load transfer blocks within the span using a spreader beam. The pure in-plane bending of the specimens can be achieved between two loading points without the presence of shear and axial forces. The displacement transducers were used to record the vertical deections and curvatures of the specimens. The specimens were labeled according to the test types and their cross-section dimensions. For example, the label BT100!50!4 stands for a pure bending test of the specimen

Fig. 2. Comparison of failure modes under pure bending.

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W.-X. Ren et al. / Thin-Walled Structures 44 (2006) 314320 Table 1 Nominal and measured material properties Channel d!bf!t (mm) 75!40!4 100!50!4 125!65!4 200!75!5 250!90!6 300!90!6 Nominal E (GPa) 200 200 200 200 200 200 s0.2 (MPa) 450 450 450 450 450 450 Measured s0.2 (MPa) 450 440 405 415 445 435 su (MPa) 525 545 510 520 530 535 3f (%) 20 20 23 24 21 23

shows the material properties of the test specimens obtained from tensile coupon tests. 3. Finite element modeling and analysis 3.1. General The nite element (FE) package ANSYSw [9] was used in this study to carry out the nonlinear nite element analysis and simulate the tested cold-formed steel channels. It is aimed to establish accurate nite element models for cold-formed steel channels subjected to pure bending as well as combined bending and web crippling. The FE models were calibrated against the test data and performed an extensive parametric study of channel geometries. The measured cross-section dimensions, material properties and boundary conditions of the tests were used in developing the FE models. The channel sections of the FE models were based on the centerline dimensions of the cross-sections together with the plate thickness and rounded corners. 3.2. Element type and mesh A thin shell element (Shell181 in ANSYS nite element package) is used in the FE models. This is a four-node element with six degrees of freedom at each node. The Shell181 element is suitable for thin to moderately thick structures with powerful nonlinear capabilities such as large deection, large rotation, and large strain so that the web crippling deformation and ultimate strength can be simulated. A 3D structural solid element (Solid45) is utilized to model the load transfer blocks and the bearing plates. The Solid45 element is suitable for the 3D modeling of structures with plasticity, stress stiffening, large deection, and large strain capabilities. The element is dened by eight nodes having three translational degrees of freedom at each node. The nite element mesh used in the models has been investigated by varying the size of the elements. The mesh sizes of approximately 15!15 mm or 9! 9 mm (length by width) for both ange and web elements were used to simulate the local deformation of channel web crippling. The corresponding element aspect ratios (lengthto-width ratio) are chosen to be 1.0 for both ange and web of the channel sections. A ner mesh is implemented at the corners of channels due to its importance in transferring the stress from ange to web. The typical nite element models of

Fig. 3. Comparison of failure modes under combined bending and web crippling.

having a nominal overall depth of the web of 100 mm, an overall ange width of 50 mm, and a plate thickness of 4 mm. The test arrangements and test results of the pure web crippling under interior-one-ange (IOF) loading condition are detailed in Young and Hancock [10,11]. The test results of the cold-formed steel channels subjected to pure bending and pure web crippling under IOF loading are herein used to nondimensionalise the channels subjected to combined bending and web crippling. Fig. 3(a) shows the test arrangements of the cold-formed steel channels subjected to combined bending and web crippling. Two channel specimens were bolted to load transfer blocks at the end supports and a bearing plate was poisoned at the mid-length of the specimens. Hinge and roller supports were also simulated by half rounds and Teon pads. In addition, restraining frames were utilized to prevent out-of-plane buckling of the long specimens. The web deformations were measured between the bearing plate and the bottom anges of the specimens. The loads were applied by means of bearing plate for the combined bending and web crippling loading condition. They were designed to act across the full ange widths of channels excluding the rounded corners. The length of bearing (N) was chosen to be the full and half ange widths of the channels. The tests are detailed in Young and Hancock [5]. The specimens were labeled such that the test type, web depth, interaction factor and bearing length could be identied from the label. For example, the label C200K1.0N75 denes the combined bending and web crippling test specimen of 200 mm web depth with an interaction factor of 1.0, and a bearing length of 75 mm. The pure bending test specimens had the same batch of specimens as the web crippling tests as well as the combined bending and web crippling tests. Hence, the material properties of the test specimens for these tests were identical. Table 1

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cold-formed channels subjected to pure bending, and combined bending and web crippling are shown in Figs. 2(b) and 3(b), respectively. 3.3. Simulation of boundary conditions The boundary conditions were carefully simulated in the FE models. In the test setup, the channels were bolted to the load transfer blocks. The coupled node method was herein used in the region where the channel connected to the load transfer blocks. The nodes at the x and y coordinates in the region were coupled together by all degrees of freedom. For the regions where the load applied through the bearing plates, the same technique was implemented for the anges connected to the bearing plates. For the combined bending and web crippling loading condition, the end load transfer blocks could only rotate about the z-axis at the hinge support end, thus the nodes on the z (vertical axis to web plane) symmetry axis of bottom surface were restrained by x, y, z, rotx and roty ve degrees of freedom. As the load transfer blocks could also translate along the x-axis at the roller support end, the translational degree of freedom x was released in addition to the degree of freedom rotz. The rest of the nodes were free to translate and rotate in any directions. 3.4. Simulation of applied loading The simulation of applied load in the nite element models was identical to the tests. The displacement control method was used. For the combined bending and web crippling loading condition, the load was applied to the elements of the inner strip at the ange corners. This is better than applying the applied load on the bearing plate and then transferring the load to the ange through contact elements [12]. For the pure bending loading condition, the applied load was applied by specifying a displacement to the two mid nodes at the top surface of the load transfer blocks at the loading points. For the interior-one-ange (IOF) loading condition of web crippling, the model is detailed in Ren et al. [15]. 3.5. Modeling of material properties The measured material properties were used in the FE models. The material properties of the test specimens were determined by tensile coupon tests. The coupons were taken from the center of the web plate of the untested specimens. The tensile coupons were prepared and tested according to the Australian Standard AS1391 [13] using 12.5 mm wide coupons of gauge length 50 mm. Table 1 shows the material properties of the test specimens. The material of the channels behaves nonlinear when loaded to the ultimate load-carrying capacity. The large strain behavior of the material was implemented by using the Isotropic Hardening material model. The material nonlinearity behavior was herein incorporated with the true stressstrain curve dened by true stress and logarithmic (true) strain calculated from the coupon test data. The relationships

between true and engineering stresses or strains are given in ANSYSw [9]. It should be noted that the cold-forming process enhances the yield stress, but reduces the ductility of the material. This inuence is signicant in the case of the corner material that the yield stress increased by approximately 50% compared to the at material as shown in the tests conducted by Popovic et al. [14]. Therefore, the corners material properties of the channels were considered in the FE models. Ren et al. [15] detailed the modeling of corners material properties of cold-formed steel channels. 4. Verication of FE model 4.1. General The FE models were veried against the experimental results in terms of failure modes, web deformation, and ultimate loads and moments. A nonlinear nite element analysis by incorporating material nonlinearity was performed using NewtonRaphson iteration method and displacementbased convergent criterion. 4.2. Small strain and large strain As mentioned earlier, the cold-formed steel channels subjected bending, web crippling, and combined bending and web crippling may experience large strains. Ren et al. [15] investigated the effects of large strain on the web crippling strength of the channels, where both small and large strain analyses involved material nonlinearity were carried out. It is shown that the small strain analysis slightly under-estimates the web crippling strength of the channels, and the large strain analysis provided a much better prediction of web deformation and ultimate strength. Subsequently, the large strain analysis is employed in the nite element analysis. 4.3. Failure modes The failure modes of the cold-formed steel channels subjected to pure bending as well as combined bending and web crippling were simulated using the FE models. Figs. 2(b) and 3(b) show the failure modes of the FE predictions for pure bending, and combined bending and web crippling, respectively. It is demonstrated that the FE predictions are in good agreement with the failure modes observed from the tests. 4.4. Web deformation Figs. 4 and 5 show the comparison of the web deformation curves for channel specimens subjected to pure bending and combined bending and web crippling, respectively. In general, the web deformation curves predicted by the nite element analysis agree well with the test curves. Therefore, the FE models using large strain analysis are capable to predict the web deformations of the cold-formed steel channels.

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90 80 70 Moment (kNm) 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 Web deformation (mm) 35 40 Test curve FEA curve

crippling. In most cases, the ultimate strengths of the channels predicted by the nonlinear FEA are slightly less than the experimental results, which indicate the FE predictions are slightly conservative. 5. Parametric study The calibrated FE models of the cold-formed steel channels subjected to pure bending as well as combined bending and web crippling were used to carry out an extensive parametric study of different channel dimensions. Twelve series of different channel sizes of cold-formed steel channels were investigated with a wide range of web slenderness h/t from 7.8 to 108.5. The channels for parametric study have the plate thickness t of 4 and 6 mm as well as the inside corner radius ri of 4 and 8 mm, respectively. The overall depth of the web ranged from 75 to 450 mm, and the overall ange width ranged from 40 to 120 mm. The channel lengths were remained at 1270 mm for the pure bending loading condition and ranged from 462 to 8590 mm for the combined bending and web crippling loading condition. The bearing length (N) ranged from 20 to 120 mm, which was chosen to be the full and half ange widths of the channels. The total number of specimens in the parametric study is 12 for pure bending loading condition and 123 for combined bending and web crippling loading condition. The nite element analysis of cold-formed steel channels subjected to pure web crippling has been carried out by Ren et al. [15]. In the parametric study, the material properties of channels with plate thickness of 4 mm are identical to those of the tested channel section 75!40!4, and the channels with plate thickness of 6 mm are identical to those of the tested channel section 250!90!6 as shown in Table 1. The element aspect ratio (length to width) of nite element mesh is approximately 1.0 for the ange and web of the channel sections. The element meshes are 15!15 mm and 9!9 mm (length by width) depending on the channel size. The loading method and the boundary conditions of the parametric study are identical to those used in the FE models calibration against the laboratory tests. 6. Design rules The design strengths obtained from the interaction equation specied in the North American Specication (NAS) for coldformed steel structures [4] is used to compare with the numerical results obtained from the parametric study for channels subjected to combined bending and web crippling. The design equation is empirical based on the limited test results carried out by different researchers, where the geometries and material properties of the tested channels are limited. The design interaction equation specied in the NAS Specication is herein further examined by the extensive parametric study using nite element analysis. The unfactored design strengths of channel sections having single unreinforced webs were calculated using the following interaction equation

Fig. 4. Comparison of web deformation curves for specimen BT250!90!6 under pure bending.

4.5. Ultimate load-carrying capacity The ultimate load-carrying capacities of moments [Mb-Exp and Mb-FEA for channels subjected to pure bending are shown in Table 2. The ultimate load-carrying capacities of loads Pc-Exp and Pc-FEA as well as moments Mc-Exp and Mc-FEA for channels subjected to combined bending and web crippling are shown in Table 3. The ultimate strengths predicted by the nonlinear FEA are compared in Tables 2 and 3 with the experimental ultimate strengths for pure bending as well as combined bending and web crippling, respectively. The mean value of experimentalto-FEA strength ratios Mb-Exp/Mb-FEA and Mb-Exp/Mb-FEA are 0.97 and 1.09 with the corresponding coefcients of variation (COV) of 0.046 and 0.041 for pure bending, and combined bending and web crippling, respectively. Fig. 6 illustrates the moment-load interaction curves obtained from laboratory tests with those predicted by the nite element analysis for different size of channels subjected to combined bending and web
60 50 40 Load (kN) 30 20 10 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Web deformation (mm) 7 6 Test curve FEA curve

Fig. 5. Comparison of web deformation curves for specimen C200K1.5N37 under combined bending and web crippling.

W.-X. Ren et al. / Thin-Walled Structures 44 (2006) 314320 Table 2 Comparison of pure bending test strengths with FEA strengths Specimen Web d (mm) 74.4 99.2 124.9 198.8 249.4 298.7 Flanges bf (mm) 40.3 50.4 65.5 75.9 90.1 91.2 Thickness t (mm) 3.85 3.83 3.84 4.70 6.01 6.00 Radius ri (mm) 3.9 4.1 3.9 4.2 7.9 8.4 Length L (mm) 1267.9 1269.6 1269.2 1271.9 1269.5 1270.7 Exp. Ult. moment per channel Mb-Exp (kNm) 6.44 11.64 16.20 40.48 79.90 92.89 FEA moment per channel Mb-FEA (kNm) 6.68 11.22 16.51 43.44 80.28 101.50

319

Ratio Mb-Exp/Mb-FEA 0.96 1.04 0.98 0.93 1.00 0.92 0.97 0.046

BT75!40!4 BT100!50!4 BT125!65!4 BT200!75!5 BT250!90!6 BT300!90!6 Mean COV

for cold-formed steel channels subjected to combined bending and web crippling,

7. Conclusions A nonlinear nite element analysis of cold-formed steel channels subjected to pure bending as well as combined bending and web crippling has been presented. The nite element models have been veried against experimental results. The failure modes, web deformations and ultimate strengths of the channels have been simulated. The failure modes predicted by the nite element analysis are in good agreement with the failure modes observed in the tests for pure bending as well as combined bending and web crippling loading conditions. The ultimate strengths of the channels predicted by the nonlinear nite element analysis are generally agreed with the test results. The calibrated nite element models were used to perform an extensive parametric study for a wide range of channel dimensions with unstiffened anges having the web slenderness ranged from 7.8 to 108.5. The ultimate strengths predicted by the nite element analysis were compared with the design strengths calculated using the North American Specication

 1:07

P PFEA

 M C % 1:42 MFEA

(1)

The numerical results obtained from the parametric study are plotted in Fig. 7 and the interaction curve of NAS Specication are also plotted. For the purpose of comparison, the design strengths have been nondimensionalised with respect to the numerical results PFEA for pure web crippling and MFEA for pure bending loading conditions. Therefore, Pc-FEA/PFEA and Mc-FEA/MFEA were plotted for the combined bending and web crippling as shown in Fig. 7. It can be observed from Fig. 7 that the design strengths predicted by the NAS Specication for channel sections with unstiffened anges are generally conservative.

Table 3 Comparison of combined bending and web crippling test strengths with FEA strengths Specimen Bearing N (mm) Web d (mm) Flanges bf (mm) Thickness t (mm) Radius ri (mm) Length L (mm) Exp. Ult. load per channel Pc-Exp (kN) C100K0.7N50 C100K1.0N50 C100K1.5N50 C100K0.7N25 C100K1.0N25 C100K1.5N25 C200K0.5N75 C200K1.0N75 C200K1.5N75 C200K0.5N37 C200K1.0N37 C200K1.5N37 C300K0.5N90 C300K1.0N90 C300K0.5N45 C300K1.0N45 Mean COV 50.0 50.0 50.0 25.0 25.0 25.0 75.0 75.0 75.0 37.5 37.5 37.5 90.0 90.0 45.0 45.0 99.4 99.6 99.5 99.4 99.5 99.5 198.7 198.8 198.7 198.4 198.5 198.6 298.5 298.5 298.1 298.2 50.5 50.5 50.5 50.5 50.4 50.4 75.9 75.9 75.9 75.8 75.7 75.7 91.2 91.2 91.4 91.3 3.84 3.83 3.83 3.84 3.83 3.84 4.72 4.71 4.73 4.71 4.70 4.72 6.01 6.01 6.00 6.01 4.1 4.1 4.1 4.1 4.1 4.1 4.2 4.2 4.2 4.2 4.2 4.2 8.4 8.4 8.4 8.4 653.0 893.4 1297.0 668.7 914.7 1331.8 947.0 1804.8 2662.1 977.4 1866.5 2654.1 1384.7 2679.0 1469.8 2848.0 54.2 44.0 34.6 48.9 40.7 31.6 91.8 68.5 53.0 82.9 61.4 49.1 138.4 107.6 124.2 90.2 Pc-FEA (kN) 49.2 41.1 31.4 41.9 35.8 28.5 87.4 65.7 50.2 72.3 57.8 48.9 123.7 99.4 111.4 86.8 Ratio Pc-Exp/ Pc-FEA Exp. Ult. moment per channel Mc-Exp (kNm) 7.63 8.83 10.44 7.07 8.38 9.80 19.66 29.39 34.08 18.38 27.26 31.46 44.79 69.65 42.85 62.22 Mc-FEA (kNm) 6.93 8.25 9.47 6.06 7.37 8.84 18.72 28.19 32.28 16.03 25.66 31.33 40.03 64.34 38.43 59.87 Ratio Mc-Exp Mc-FEA 1.10 1.07 1.10 1.17 1.14 1.11 1.05 1.04 1.06 1.15 1.06 1.00 1.12 1.08 1.11 1.04 1.09 0.041

1.10 1.07 1.10 1.17 1.14 1.11 1.05 1.04 1.06 1.15 1.06 1.00 1.12 1.08 1.11 1.04 1.09 0.041

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0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0.0 N=50.0mm (test) N=25.0mm (test) N=50.0mm (FEA) N=25.0mm (FEA) NAS 2001 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 Non-dimensionalised load, P/PExp (a) channel 100504 1.0

Fig. 7. Comparison of FEA results with design curve for cold-formed steel channels subjected to combined bending and web crippling.

Non-dimensionalised moment, M/MExp

0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0.0 N=75.0mm (test) N=37.5mm (test) N=75.0mm (FEA) N=37.5mm (FEA) NAS 2001 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 Non-dimensionalised load, P/PExp (b) channel 200755

Specication are generally conservative for cold-formed steel channels with web slenderness ranged from 7.8 to 108.5. References
[1] Yu WW. Cold-formed steel design. 3rd ed. New York: Wiley; 2000. [2] Hancock GJ. Design of cold-formed steel structures. 3rd ed. Sydney: Australian Institute of Steel Construction; 1998. [3] Australian/New Zealand Standard AS/NZS 4600. Cold-formed steel structures. Sydney: Standards Australia; 1996. [4] North American Specication for the design of cold-formed steel structural members. American Iron and Steel Institute, Washington, DC; 2001. [5] Young B, Hancock GJ. Test of channels subjected to combined bending and web crippling. J Struct Eng ASCE 2002;128(3):3008. [6] Specication for the design of cold-formed steel structural members. American Iron and Steel Institute, Washington, DC; 1996. [7] Davies JM. Recent research advances in cold-formed steel structure. J Constr Steel Res 2000;55:26788. [8] Young B, Yan J. Finite element analysis and design of xed-ended plain channel columns. Finite Elem Anal Des 2002;38(6):54966. [9] ANSYS Standard Users Manual Version 7.0. Swanson analysis system, USA; 2002. [10] Young B, Hancock GJ. Design of cold-formed channels subjected to web crippling. J Struct Eng ASCE 2001;127(10):113744. [11] Young B, Hancock GJ. Design of cold-formed unlipped channels subjected to web crippling, Research report R794. Sydney: Department of Civil Engineering,University of Sydney, Australia; 1999. [12] R.Y. Xiao, G.P.W. Chin, K.F. Chung. Testing and numerical analysis of cold-formed c-sections subject to patch load, in:, (Eds.), Proceedings of the third international conference on advances in steel structures, Hong Kong, (2002) 351356. [13] Australian Standard AS 1391. Methods for tensile testing of metals. Standards Association of Australia, Sydney, Australia; 1991. [14] Popovic D, Hancock GJ, Rasmussen KJR. Axial compression tests of cold-formed angles. J Struct Eng ASCE 1999;125(5):51523. [15] Ren WX, Fang SE, Young B. Finite element simulation and design of cold-formed steel channels subjected to web crippling. J Struct Eng ASCE; 2006. [In press].

Non-dimensionalised moment, M/MExp

1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 N=90.0mm (test) N=45.0mm (test) N=90.0mm (FEA) N=45.0mm (FEA) NAS 2001

0.0 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 Non-dimensionalised load, P/PExp (c) channel 300906

Fig. 6. Test and FEA results for combined bending and web crippling.

for cold-formed steel structures for channels subjected to combined bending and web crippling. It is observed that the interaction equation specied in the North American

Non-dimensionalised moment, M/MFEA

Non-dimensionalised moment, M/MExp

1.0

1.1 1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 FEA NAS 2001 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 Non-dimensionalised load, P/PFEA