Analysis of cold-formed steel rectangular hollow flange beams

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a theoretical-numerical study of laterally-restrained thin-walled steel rectangular hollow flange beams subjected to bending, shear and bending and shear interaction. Finite element analyses were carried out by using ANSYS software, and validated by previous experimental tests. Furthermore, the effect of intermediate stiffeners was investigated, where the improvement percentage in bending capacity was 4.4%. Additionally, all the corresponding outcomes were calculated according to EN 1993-1-3. The results showed that current standard rules tend to be somewhat conservative in both bending and bending and shear interaction cases, while they are not quite accurate in shear case.