Effect of external strengthening on the flexural capacity of cold-formed steel beams

Abstract

Cold-formed steel (CFS) members face stability problems mainly due to their thin-walled features. Such issues have been addressed by different techniques in the past. Local strengthening of the vulnerable regions by various external stiffening techniques has immense potential to delay the local instabilities experiences at these vulnerable locations. It may not only be effective by economical as well. This paper discusses an experimental investigation on the flexural behaviour of uniquely strengthened open CFS beams, comprising of channels, and tested under pure flexural loading with simply supported end support conditions. The test results were mainly drawn in terms of strength and stiffness characteristics of these CFS open beams, which helped in quantifying the efficiency of such uniquely strengthened beams. Lastly, the theoretical capacities were computed using the current codes, which were later compared against the test strengths. It was concluded that these uniquely strengthening techniques has the potential of improve the flexural strengths of the CFS beams conveniently.