Numerical Simulation And Design Of Cold-formed Steel Oval Hollow Section Members

With the rapid development of cold-formed steel structures, more and more types of cold-formed steel section members have been applied in the structure. For a new types of section members, it is necessary to investigate the applicability of existing design specification to promote its application in engineering. A research has been performed on the numerical simulation and design of cold-formed steel oval hollow section members to investigate the applicability of existing Chinese and international design specification for the new sections. A new applicable design method called Direct Strength Method (DSM) has been used to design in this paper. It is suitable for the design of such components and provides a design basis for the promotion of this component in engineering.The content and results of this study are as follows:Firstly, non-linear finite element models of column, beam and beam-column have been developed using Abaqus. The numerical results were compared with the test results and it is shown that the numerical model accurately predicted the structural behavior of the compression members. It could replace the expensive test and could be an economical and efficient method in the research to a large extent.Secondly, parametric study including 100 compression members, 36 bending members and 200 beam-column members with different cross-section dimensions and lengths were performed using the verified model. It provided a lot of objects for the following design research.Finally, based on the results of the experiment and numerical simulation, the design of such section member has been studied. Some assumptions were made based on experiments and numerical simulations as a result of no stipulation about the effective width of the semi-circular in the current design specifications. Direct Strength Method based on full cross-section was proposed. The test and numerical strengths were compared with the design strengths calculated using the current code and direct strength method. It is shown that the direct strength method can be used for the design of cold-formed steel oval hollow section members under axial compression.