Load-bearing capacity of cold-formed sinusoidal steel sheets

Abstract Currently, corrugated cold-formed steel sheets are widely used as parts of cladding panels and roof envelopes in public and residential buildings. However, the design of corrugated sheets is weakly covered by the current building codes. This paper investigates the load-bearing capacity of corrugated steel sheets with the sinusoidal profile, presenting the results of the experimental research that was performed in the GRISPE project at the Research Center for Steel, Timber and Masonry, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Three types of tests were carried out: (1) single span tests under downward loading, (2) internal support tests under downward and upward loading to investigate the moment-support interaction and (3) end support tests under downward loading to determine the local resistance of the profiles. The obtained results are used to validate the design methods for bending moment resistance of sinusoidal sheets. The validation demonstrated that the conventional design method and the Swedish code for light-gauge structures StBK-N5 provide a safe and accurate prediction of the resistance and can be recommended as simple design rules for sinusoidal sheets. The Eurocode for silos, EN 1993-4-1:2007, was found to provide a simplified solution for calculating the section properties of the sinusoidal profile. In addition, the obtained experimental results showed that internal supports can considerably reduce the bending moment capacity in the span of the sheet. Some conclusions are made on the dependency of M ∕ R -interaction on the direction of loading, the fixing type and the support width.