Behavior and Design of Thin-Walled Cold-Formed Steel Clip Angles Subjected to Shear Load

Abstract

Thin-walled cold-formed steel (CFS) clip angles are commonly used to connect CFS framing members or attach CFS members to the main building structure. The design provisions for CFS clip angle connectors have not been included in the AISI design specifications and standards. This paper presents a research project aimed at developing a design method for the thin-walled cold-formed steel load bearing clip angles subjected to shear forces. An extensive test program was conducted to investigate the behavior and shear capacity of clip angles with various dimensions and thicknesses. It was found that the local buckling and the distortional buckling could dominate the failure mechanism dependent on the plate slenderness ratio. Based on the test results, two design methods were developed for determining the nominal shear strength of load bearing clip angles with and without consideration of the clip deformation, respectively. The ASD safety factors and the LRFD resistance factor were also produced to support the proposed design provisions.