Shear Capacity of Cold-Formed Steel Channels with Edge-Stiffened Web Holes, Unstiffened Web Holes, and Plain Webs

Abstract

In this paper, a total of 254 results comprising 30 shear tests and 224 finite element (FE) analysis results are reported. Simply supported test specimens of cold-formed steel (CFS) channels with aspect ratios of 1.0 and 1.5 were tested. For comparison, specimens with unstiffened web holes and plain webs were also tested. A nonlinear elastoplastic FE model was then developed and validated against the experimental results. Using the validated FE model, a parametric study was conducted to investigate the effect of various influential parameters on the shear capacity of such CFS channels. The test results show that for a channel with edge-stiffened web holes, the shear capacity increased by 14.5% on average when compared with that of a channel with unstiffened web holes. The test and FE results were compared against the design predictions. Upon comparison, it was found that the design rules of CFS channels with unstiffened web holes in accordance with the AISI and AS/NZS can be unconservative by 7% while calculating the shear capacity of CFS channels with edge-stiffened web holes. Therefore, a suitable design formula in the form of a shear capacity reduction factor was proposed for CFS channels with edge-stiffened web holes.