Cold Formed Steel

Cold-formed steel is created by pressing or rolling steel into shapes at low temperatures. It is commonly used in construction materials like studs, joists, and beams. Cold-formed steel construction materials are made of thin sheet steel and assembled similarly to timber framing using screws. An analytical model was developed to predict the response of cold-formed steel stud walls under blast loads, assuming the connections and bracing are strong enough to prevent failures from out-of-plane distortion or connection failures. The model considers the wall's resistance through four regions as it deflects under uniform loading.

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Cold Formed Steel

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Cold Formed Steel

Cold-formed steel (CFS) is the common term for products made by rolling or pressing
steel into semi-finished or finished goods at relatively low temperatures (cold
working). Cold-formed steel goods are created by the working of steel billet, bar, or
sheet using stamping, rolling (including roll forming), or presses to deform it into a
usable product. Cold-worked steel products, such as cold-rolled steel (CRS) bar stock
and sheet, are commonly used in all areas of manufacturing of durable goods, such as
appliances or automobiles, but the phrase cold-formed steel is most prevalently used
to describe construction materials. The use of cold-formed steel construction materials
has become more and more popular since its initial introduction of codified standards
in 1946. In the construction industry both structural and non-structural elements are
created from thin gauges of sheet steel. These building materials encompass columns,
beams, joists, studs, floor decking, built-up sections and other components. Cold-
formed steel construction materials differ from other steel construction materials
known as hot-rolled steel (see structural steel). The manufacturing of cold-formed
steel products occurs at room temperature using rolling or pressing. The strength of
elements used for design is usually governed by buckling. The construction practices
are more similar to timber framing using screws to assemble stud frames.

Cold-formed steel building

Cold-formed steel members have been used in buildings, bridges, storage racks, grain
bins, car bodies, railway coaches, highway products, transmission towers,
transmission poles, drainage facilities, various types of equipment and others.These
types of sections are cold-formed from steel sheet, strip, plate, or flat bar in roll
forming machines, by press brake (machine press) or bending operations. The
material thicknesses for such thin-walled steel members usually range from 0.0147 in.
(0.373 mm) to about ¼ in. (6.35 mm). Steel plates and bars as thick as 1 in. (25.4 mm)
can also be cold-formed successfully into structural shapes (AISI, 2007b).
Figure 1 : Cold Formed Steel

Common section profiles and applications

When steel is formed by press-braking or cold rolled forming, there is a change in the
mechanical properties of the material by virtue of the cold working of the metal.
When a steel section is cold-formed from flat sheet or strip the yield strength, and to a
lesser extent the ultimate strength, are increased as a result of this cold working,
particularly in the bends of the section.
Some of the main properties of cold formed steel are as follows:
 Lightness in weight
 High strength and stiffness
 Ease of prefabrication and mass production
 Fast and easy erection and installation
 Substantial elimination of delays due to weather
 More accurate detailing
 Non shrinking and non creeping at ambient temperatures
 No formwork needed
 Termite-proof and rot proof
 Uniform quality
 Economy in transportation and handling
 Non combustibility
 Recyclable material
 Panels and decks can provide enclosed cells for conduits.

A broad classification of the cold-formed shapes used in the construction industry can
be made as individual structural framing members or panels and decks.
Some of the popular applications and the preferred sections are:
 Roof and wall systems (industrial, commercial, and agricultural buildings)
 Steel racks for supporting storage pallets.
 Structural members for plane and space trusses.
 Frameless Stressed skin structures: Corrugated sheets or sheeting profiles with
stiffened edges are used for small structures up to a 30 ft clear span with no
interior framework.

Image 1 CFS Decking

Image 2 CFS Purlins

Image 3 CFS X-braced wall system wall

Image 4 CFS stu/girt wall connection

Analytical Model

In past research, steel stud walls subjected to blast loading exhibited a tendency to fail
in shear at end connections. Thus, the energy absorption capacity of steel stud walls
varied greatly with connection type and strength. The analytical model presented in
this section is formulated to predict the response of steel stud walls assuming that out-
of-plane distortion (lateral torsional buckling) and connection failure is prevented
through properly designed lateral bracings and improved connection details [4,5,11].
The analytical model is developed to ascertain the resistance functions for dynamic
analysis under blast loads. The resistance model is based on midspan deflection of the
wall subjected to uniform loading. The analytical model developed in this section
assumes that stud connections are strong enough to permit significant plastic tensile
deformation in the studs. As sufficiently anchored steel studs deflect, they transition
through four different resistance regions, which are shown in Fig.2.