The behaviour of cold-formed channel sections with elongated web holes in shear

Abstract

Cold-formed C-sections perforated with circular and square web openings in shear have been studied thoroughly. However, the web holes are likely to be elongated along the span length due to limited web depth to allow more access for building services in practice. This paper summarizes an experimental study on channels in shear with elongated web holes. The study uses a dual actuator test rig with the aim of minimizing the effects of bending moments at the two ends of the shear span and obtaining the pure shear capacity with an aspect ratio up to 2.0. A comparison of Direct Strength Method design loads for shear with the test results is conducted. The shear yield loads based on the previous proposals for the DSM in shear for perforated channels with square and circular web holes are used in this paper to assess the applicability of those proposals to the cases of elongated web openings.