Cold Form Sections

And Its Example

Presented By: Harry Patel (14103010)
Harsh Patel (14103029)
Introduction to cold form
section
• Thin sheet steel products are extensively used in building industry,
and range from purlins to roof sheeting and floor decking.
• Generally these are available for use as basic building elements for
assembly at site or as prefabricated frames or panels.
• These thin steel sections are cold-formed, i.e. their manufacturing
process involves forming steel sections in a cold state (i.e. without
application of heat) from steel sheets of uniform thickness.
• These are given the generic title Cold Formed Steel Sections.
• Sometimes they are also called Light Gauge Steel Sections or Cold
Rolled Steel Sections.
Introduction to cold form
section
• The thickness of steel sheet used in cold formed construction is
usually 1 to 3 mm.
• Much thicker material up to 8 mm can be formed if pre-galvanised
material is not required for the particular application.
• The method of manufacturing is important as it differentiates these
products from hot rolled steel sections.
• Normally, the yield strength of steel sheets used in cold-formed
sections is at least 280 N/mm2, although there is a trend to use steels
of higher strengths, and sometimes as low as 230 N/mm2.
Fig.1 Typical Cold Formed Steel Profiles
Types of Stiffened and
Unstiffened Elements
1. Stiffened Element:
• An element which is supported by webs along both its longitudinal
edges is called a stiffened element.
2. Unstiffened Element:
• An unstiffened element is one, which is supported along one
longitudinal edge only with the other parallel edge being free to
displace.
3. Intermittently Stiffened Element:
• An intermittently stiffened element is made of a very wide thin
element which has been divided into two or more narrow sub
elements by the introduction of intermediate stiffeners, formed
during rolling.
 Unstiffened element
Stiffened element

Intermediate Stiffener

Intermittently stiffened element

Fig.2 Stiffened and Unstiffened elements

Local Buckling
• Local buckling is an
extremely important facet of
cold formed steel sections on
account of the fact that the
very thin elements used will
invariably buckle before
yielding.
• Thinner the plate, the lower
will be the load at which the
buckles will form.
 Fig.3 (A) Axially compressed plate simply supported
on all edges
• A flat plate simply supported on all
edges and loaded in compression (as
shown in Fig.3 (A)) will buckle at an
elastic critical stress given by:

• Substituting the values for π, ν = 0.3

and E = 205 kN/mm2
• We obtain the value of pcr as

Fig.3 (B) Axially compressed plate with one edge supported

and the other edge free to move
• The value of K is dependent on support conditions. When all the
edges are simply supported K has a value of 4.0.
• When one of the edges is free to move and the opposite edge is
supported, (as shown in Fig.3 (B)), the plate buckles at a significantly
lower load, as K reduces dramatically to 0.425.
• This shows that plates with free edges do not perform well under
local buckling.
• To counter this difficulty when using cold formed sections, the free
edges are provided with a lip so that they will be constrained to
remain straight and will not be free to move.
Post - critical behaviour
• Consider the channel subjected to a uniform bending by the
application of moments at the ends.
• The thin plate at the top is under flexural compression and will buckle
as shown in Fig.4 (a).
• This type of buckling is characterised by ripples along the length of
the element.
• The top plate is supported along the edges and its central portion,
which is far from the supports, will deflect and shed the load to the
stiffer edges.
Fig.4 Local Buckling Effects
• The regions near the edges are
prevented from deflecting to the
same extent.
• The stresses are non uniform
across the section as shown in
Fig.4 (b).
• It is obvious that the applied
moment is largely resisted by
regions near the edges (i.e.
elements which carry increased
stresses) while the regions near
the centre are only lightly stressed
and so are less effective in
resisting the applied moment.
 • From a theoretical stand point, flat
plates would buckle
instantaneously at the elastic
critical load.
• Under incremental loading, plate
elements which are not perfectly
flat will begin to deform out of
plane from the beginning rather
than instantaneously at the onset
of buckling and fail at a lower load.
• This means that a non -uniform
state of stress exists throughout
the loading regime.
• The variation of mean stress with
Fig.5 Mean stress Vs Lateral deflection relation lateral deflection for flat plates and
plates with initial imperfection,
under loading are shown in Fig.5.
Effective Width Concept
• The effects of local buckling can be evaluated by using the concept of
effective width.
• Lightly stressed regions at centre are ignored, as these are least
effective in resisting the applied stresses.
• Regions near the supports are far more effective and are taken to be
fully effective.
• The section behaviour is modelled on the basis of the effective width
(beff) sketched in Fig. 5(c).
• The effective width of an element under compression is dependent
on the magnitude of the applied stress fc , the width/thickness ratio of
the element and the edge support conditions.
 Code Provisions on “Local
Buckling of Compressed Plates”
• BS5950: Part 5 provides a semi-empirical formula for basic effective width, beff , to conform to extensive
experimental data.

• When fc > 0.123 pcr , then,

• When fc < 0.123 pcr, then beff = b

Where,
fc = compressive stress on the effective element, N/ mm2
pcr = local buckling stress given by, pcr = 185,000 K ( t / b)2 N/ mm2
K = load buckling coefficient which depends on the element type, section geometry etc.
t = thickness of the element, in mm
b = width of the element, in mm
Fig.6 Ratio of effective width to flat width (fy = 280 N/mm2) of
compression plate with simple edge supports
• Typical formula given in BS 5950, Part 5 for computing K values for a channel
element is given below for illustration. (see BS 5950, Part 5 for a complete list of
buckling coefficients).

1. Lipped channel.

The buckling coefficient K1 for the element of width B1 is given by,

…………(3a) Where, h = B2 / B1

For element of width B2, t1 and t2 are the thicknesses of element width B1
…………………(3b)
and B2 respectively. (Note: normally t1 and t2 will
be equal). The computed values of K2 should not
be less than 4.0 or 0.425 as the case may be.
2. Plain channel (without lips)

The buckling coefficient K1 for the element of width B1 is given by

• For the member having the width of B2 in the above sketch.

Maximum width to thickness
ratios
• IS: 801 and BS 5950, Part 5 limit the maximum ratios of (b/t) for
compression elements as follows:
• Stiffened elements with one longitudinal edge connected to a flange
or web element and the other stiffened by a simple lip = 60
• • Stiffened elements with both longitudinal edges connected to other
stiffened elements = 500
• • Unstiffened compression elements = 60
• However the code also warns against the elements developing very
large deformations, when b/t values exceed half the values tabulated
above.
Thank You