Structural behaviour and design of lightweight structural panels using perforated cold-formed thin-walled sections under compression

Abstract

Cold-formed thin-walled steel sections are widely used as primary loadbearing members in lightweight panels that form walls in residential and other low rise structures. In cold regions, the webs of the steel sections are often perforated to reduce the cold bridging effect in order to increase thermal comfort and reduce energy waste. Perforating the web of a steel section will reduce its loadbearing capacity. This paper presents the results of an experimental and numerical study to investigate the compression behaviour of lightweight structural panels using perforated sections. The primary objective of the tests is to provide experimental data to validate the numerical simulations, which were carried out using the commercial finite element analysis software ABAQUS. The validated FE analysis was used to develop a simple design calculation method to convert a section with perforated web to a section with solid web. In the equivalent solid web, the thickness of the solid web would have the same elastic local buckling strength as the original perforated web with the gross thickness while the thickness of the unperforated flanges remains unchanged. By converting a thin-walled section with perforated web to a solid section with an effective web thickness, the conventional design methods for thin-walled structures can be applied.