Flexural Behaviour of Innovative Cold Formed Steel Sections

Cold formed steel members are gaining popularity in construction industry from past few decades. Initially cold formed steel sections are used as secondary structural elements but now cold formed steel sections are also used as primary structural elements. In the present paper, an attempt has been made to test the flexural behaviour of 2 conventional and 6 innovative I sections. Two conventional sections are selected from the specification for cold formed light gauge structural steel sections (IS 811). For each conventional section 3 equivalent innovative sections are fabricated by changing its profile geometry. Conventional sections are analytically studied using the available codal procedures such as Indian code, Australian code, Euro code and American code (IS 801: 1975, AS/NZS 4600: 2005, EN 1993 1–3, AISI S 100: 2007). Using similar procedures even innovative sections are also analytically studied. The specimens are developed in Autocad software along with development length required for fabrication process. Ansys software is used to perform numerical investigation. Load deflection behaviour is studied experimentally and numerically. Comparative study is made between the conventional and innovative cold formed steel sections. The conclusion drawn from the present study is that the conventional sections are stiffer and failed suddenly after reaching ultimate load which is not acceptable. The innovative sections shown 50.96% increase in ductility compared to conventional sections which makes it a useful section in earth quake prone areas.