STRUCTURAL BEHAVIOR OF THICK COLD-FORMED STEEL MEMBERS

A study was made on the use of the “Specification for the Design of Cold-Formed Steel Structural Members” of the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) for the design of steel members cold-formed from thick sheets and plates. Experiments were conducted to study the increase in yield point caused by the cold work of forming. The investigation indicates that the design formulas for determining the effective design width of stiffened elements and the allowable stress for unstiffened compression elements currently included in the AISI Specification can be conservatively used for sections cold-formed from thick sheets and plates. It was also found that the AISI design provision for computing corner yield point provides good results for thick steel sheets and plates having a sharp yielding stress-strain curve with a small plateau and for cold-rolled sheets and strip.