Evaluation of Direct Strength Method for CFS Compression

Members without Stiffeners

M. V. Anil Kumar1 and V. Kalyanaraman2

Abstract: The axial compressive strength of the cold-formed steel 共CFS兲 members with edge or intermediate stiffener is affected by
interaction of local, distortional and overall buckling. In order to overcome the tedious and time consuming nature of the traditional
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Effective Section method of evaluating strength of such members, direct strength method 共DSM兲 has been advanced recently. However,
the DSM has not been adequately evaluated for calculating the strength of compression members 共such as tubular, plain channel, and
I-sections兲 consisting of only stiffened and unstiffened elements, without either lip stiffener or intermediate stiffener. These members
experience interaction of only local and overall buckling before failure. In this paper, results of a study on the suitability of DSM to
evaluate the compressive strength of plain channel, I and rectangular tubular members is presented. Extensive experimental data in
literature and additional data generated using currently accepted effective width method 共based on better estimate of local buckling stress
evaluated considering element interaction兲, are used in this study. It is found that DSM can be used to evaluate strength of such members
also.
DOI: 10.1061/共ASCE兲ST.1943-541X.0000185
CE Database subject headings: Cold-formed steel; Effective width; Hollow sections; Compression.
Author keywords: Cold-formed steel; Direct strength method; Effective width method; Plain channel; Rectangular hollow section;
I-section.

Introduction authors, evaluating the adequacy of DSM for compression mem-

Yielding of the material, local buckling, distortional buckling,
overall buckling and any possible interaction among these modes
affect the strength of the cold-formed steel 共CFS兲 compression
members. The vulnerability of thin-walled CFS compression
members to local buckling and distortional buckling before over-
all buckling requires design methods to account for the different
modes of buckling and their interaction. Conventionally most
codes of practice for design of CFS compression member recom-
mend the use of effective area, based on effective width or effec-
tive thickness. This involves tedious trial and error calculations,
especially in case of members consisting of edge or intermediate
stiffeners, which may experience local and distortional buckling
prior to overall buckling. Direct strength method 共DSM兲 has been
recently included in North American Specification 共NAS兲 and
Australian/New Zealand Standard AS/NZS 4600:2005, as a sim-
pler method for evaluating the strength of members with either
edge and/or intermediate stiffeners, as long as they meet certain
requirements specified in the code. This was based on the work of
Schafer and Peköz 共1998兲, Hancock et al. 共1994兲, Schafer 共2002兲,
Schafer 共2008兲 and others. However, there is no study, known to
1
Ph.D. Research Scholar, Structural Engineering Division, Dept. of
Civil Engineering, IIT Madras, Chennai 600036, India.
2
Professor, Structural Engineering Division, Dept. of Civil Engineer-
ing, IIT Madras, Chennai 600036, India 共corresponding author兲. E-mail:
kalyan@iitm.ac.in
Note. This manuscript was submitted on June 8, 2009; approved on
December 14, 2009; published online on January 9, 2010. Discussion
period open until December 1, 2010; separate discussions must be sub-
mitted for individual papers. This paper is part of the Journal of Struc-
tural Engineering, Vol. 136, No. 7, July 1, 2010. ©ASCE, ISSN 0733-
9445/2010/7-879–885/$25.00.
bers without edge or intermediate stiffeners. These members do
not experience distortional buckling, which represents the defor-
mation normal to the folded lines between the elements of the
cross section.
It is desirable to use a unified DSM for all different types of
CFS compression members, irrespective of type of sections and
possible buckling modes and their interaction. In this paper ap-
propriateness of DSM for calculating the compressive strength of
plain channel sections 共PCSs兲 关Fig. 1共a兲兴, I-sections 共ISs兲 关Fig.
1共b兲兴 and rectangular hollow sections 共RHS兲 关Fig. 1共c兲兴 is evalu-
ated. These sections do not have edge or intermediate stiffeners
and hence are not vulnerable to distortional/stiffener buckling.
Initially, methods for evaluating the strength CFS compression
members are briefly reviewed. Subsequently, it is shown that the
strength evaluated using effective width method 共EWM兲, consid-
ering the effect of element interaction on local buckling, com-
pares well with the experimental results. Then the extensive test
results on the compressive strength of sections without any stiff-
eners, available in literature and the additional data generated
using the currently accepted EWM 共but considering the element
interaction兲 have been used to study the adequacy of DSM. The
study evaluates only accuracy of DSM in evaluating the strength
of such members. The reliability analysis to arrive at the partial
safety factor for the design is outside the scope of this paper. In
addition, the applicability of DSM for hinged plain channel com-
pression member, which suffer shifting of the effective section
centroid axis in the post local buckling range, also is not consid-
ered in this paper.
Design Methods for CFS Compression Members
A thin-walled CFS member, when subjected to uniform compres-
sion may fail due to local buckling of plate elements 关Fig. 2共a兲兴,

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J. Struct. Eng. 2010.136:879-885.

 b b b the design of CFS columns and beams with either lip or interme-
diate stiffener. This was based on the work of Schafer and Peköz
共1998兲, Hancock et al. 共1994兲, Schafer 共2002兲, Schafer 共2008兲,
y y y
and others. In this method the value of the elastic local buckling
x h x h w x h and distortional buckling strengths of the members are directly
t tw t used in empirical equations to arrive at the ultimate strength of
the member, as given below.
w tf w According to the NAS 共2007兲, the nominal compressive
strength of a section, Pn shall be the minimum of Pne, Pnl, and
(a)Plain Channel Section (b) I Section (c) Rectangular hollow Section
(PCS) (IS) (RHS)
Pnd, which may be calculated from the equations given below.
Overall buckling strength 共Pne兲
Fig. 1. CFS sections without stiffeners 2
For ␭c ⱕ 1.5 Pne = 共0.658␭c 兲Py 共1a兲
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distortional buckling of edge stiffened elements 关Fig. 2共b兲兴, over- For ␭c ⬎ 1.5 Pne = 共0.877/␭2c 兲Py 共1b兲
all buckling as a compression member, yielding of the gross cross
section or some interaction of these modes. The widely accepted Local buckling strength 共Pnl兲
method for the design of CFS members is the EWM. An alterna-
For ␭l ⱕ 0.776 Pnl = Py 共1c兲
tive method which has attracted serious research efforts in the

冉 冉 冊 冊冉 冊
recent decade is the simpler DSM. The other design methods
0.4 0.4
include: reduced stress, effective thickness, and Q factor ap- Pcrl Pcrl
For ␭l ⬎ 0.776 Pnl = 1 − 0.15 Py 共1d兲
proaches. The first two methods, which are most widely used, are Py Py
briefly reviewed in the following sections.
Distortional buckling strength 共Pnd兲

EWM For ␭d ⱕ 0.561 Pnd = Py 共1e兲

冉 冉 冊 冊冉 冊
In this method the nonuniform stress distribution over the cross 0.6 0.6
Pcrd Pcrd
section of the member under axial compression, after local and For ␭d ⬎ 0.561 Pnd = 1 − 0.25 Py
distortional buckling and the consequent reduction in the stiffness Py Py
of the member are accounted for by using an effective area. The 共1f兲
effective area of the cross section is based on the EWM 共AISI兲 or
combination of effective width 共to account for local buckling兲 and The nondimensional slenderness ratios corresponding to the local,
effective thickness 共to account for distortional buckling兲 共EN distortional and overall column buckling, ␭l, ␭d, and ␭c, respec-
1993-1-3 共European Committee for Standardization 共CEN兲 tively, are defined as
2004兴兲. The effective section is used to evaluate the overall buck-
␭l = 冑 共Py/Pcrl兲, ␭d = 冑 共Py/Pcrd兲 and ␭c = 冑 共Py/Pcre兲
ling strength. This method is complex, iterative and time consum-
ing. Further, the local buckling stress calculation usually does not where Pcrl, Pcrd, and Pcre = elastic local, distortional, and overall
account for the interaction among the elements of the cross sec- column buckling strengths of the member, respectively, evaluated
tion. Hence, this often leads to lower estimate of the local buck- by any numerical method such as finite strip method, finite ele-
ling stress. ment method, or by an approximate closed form equations; and
Py is the yielding strength of the gross section.
The DSM recommends using overall buckling strength of the
DSM
member, Pne from Eqs. 共1a兲 and 共1b兲 instead Py in local buckling
In order to overcome the difficulties of tedious and iterative cal- strength equations 关Eqs. 共1c兲 and 共1d兲兴 to account for the interac-
culations involved in the EWM, DSM has been recently intro- tion of local buckling on overall buckling strength. However,
duced in the NAS 关American Iron and Steel Institute 共AISI兲 DSM does not recommend any modification of the local or over-
2007a,b兴 and AS/NZS 4600:2005 共Standards Australia 2005兲 for all buckling strength to account for the effect of distortional buck-

Local buckling Distortional buckling Overall buckling

(a) Local Buckling (b) distortional buckling (c) Typical signature curve

Fig. 2. Elastic buckling of lipped channel compression member

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J. Struct. Eng. 2010.136:879-885.

 ling, since similar modification in Eqs. 共1c兲 and 共1d兲 results in 7.0
BS 5950 Curves
very conservative values for strengths compared to experimental 6.5
CUFSM Results
data 共Schafer 2002兲.
6.0
At present, DSM is fully evaluated only for the pre-qualified
sections given in the Table 1.1.1–1 of the Appendix 1 of NAS 5.5 RHS
共2007兲. These prequalified sections have either edge or interme- 5.0
diate stiffeners and further have to satisfy limitations on the cross
4.5
sectional dimensions as required in the standard. The DSM for the
design of compression members with edge or intermediate stiff- 4.0
eners has considerably simplified the design of such members.

K
3.5
However, it would be desirable to have a uniform DSM based
3.0
approach for the design of all compression members including
members without edge or intermediate stiffeners. DSM has not 2.5
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been evaluated for compression members not having either lip or 2.0
intermediate stiffeners, such as tubular, channel, and ISs. These
1.5 IS
sections do not undergo distortional buckling.
This study finds DSM is adequate for determining the strength 1.0
of PCSs, ISs, and RHS, having sectional parameters over a wide 0.5 PCS
practical range. This is demonstrated by comparing the strength of
0.0
such sections evaluated using DSM with the extensive test results
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
available in literature as well as the data generated using currently
accepted EWM, but modified for the effect of element interaction b/h
on elastic local buckling stress.
Fig. 3. Comparison of buckling coefficient 共K兲 from CUFSM with
CFE for PCS, IS, and RHS
Computation of Local Buckling Stress of
Thin-Walled Section similar equations for elastic local/distortional buckling load for
members with stiffeners. Since they do not result in adequately
The elastic local buckling stress, ␴crl, of the thin-walled member accurate values of the buckling loads for the members without
with stiffened and unstiffened plate elements of thin-walled sec- any stiffeners, we have used equations in BS 5950 Part 5 共1987兲
tions can be calculated using for evaluating the local buckling stresses accurately. The closed
form equations for evaluating the local buckling coefficients, K,
K␲2E for different sections are given below.

冉冊
␴crl = 2 共2兲
w
12共1 − ␯ 兲
2
Plain Channel Section
t
in which E = Young’s modulus; ␯ = Poisson’s ratio; w = flat width
of the critical element; t = thickness of the element; and K
K ⬇ ␮2 冉 2 2 + 4.8␮
␤
+
␤2
冊 共3a兲

= elastic local buckling coefficient. where ␤ = 共1 + 15␮3兲1/2

The value of the elastic local buckling coefficients, K, sug-
gested by the NAS 共2007兲 disregards the rotational restraint of- I-Section

冉 冊冉 冊
fered to the buckling element by the adjoining elements. Hence,
␴crl, computed using the K values suggested by code are usually tw 2
2 2+␮
K⬇ ␮ + 共3b兲
conservative. Since the accuracy of DSM depends on the accu- tf ␤ ␤2
racy of the elastic buckling strength, ␴crl has to be computed
considering the interaction effect of rotational restraint by the where ␤ = 共1 + 90␮4兲1/2
adjacent elements. CUFSM 共Schafer and Adany 2006兲, a down-
loadable software based on the finite strip method, can be used for Rectangular Hollow Section „b ⱕ h…
determining the local buckling stress, ␴crl, of thin-walled sections 2␮
accurately. K⬇7− − 1.2␮3 共3c兲
0.11 + ␮
where ␮ = b / h
Closed Form Equation for K
The elastic local buckling stress of the section under uniform
Even though CUFSM is simple to use, a closed form equation compression can be computed by using Eq. 共1兲 with the K values
共CFE兲 is preferred from the routine design point of view. Appen- obtained from Eq. 共3兲 and flat width w 共Fig. 1兲. The mean, stan-
dix 1 of the BS 5950 Part 5 共British Standards Institute 1987兲 dard deviation, maximum and minimum values of Pcrl-CFE /
recommends approximate equations for K which accounts for the Pcrl-CUFSM of sections considered in the study are given in Table 1.
rotational restraints offered to the buckling elements by the ad- This shows that the CFE predicts the elastic local buckling stress
joining elements. Local buckling load 共Pcrl兲 obtained from BS fairly accurately. Moreover, small errors in Pcrl do not have con-
5950 Part 5 共1987兲 equations compares well with CUFSM results siderable influence on nominal compressive strength 共Pn兲 com-
for PCS, IS and RHS 共Fig. 3兲. Hence the closed form expressions puted using DSM equations. Hence, Pcrl from the closed form
given in the BS 5950 Part 5 共1987兲 may be used for the deter- equations can be used in all practical design of these members,
mining Pcrl more accurately. NAS 共2007兲 commentary also gives instead of CUFSM.

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J. Struct. Eng. 2010.136:879-885.

 Table 1. Summary of Statistics of Pcrl-CFE / Pcrl-CUFSM Initially the experimental results are used to evaluate the ad-
n a
␮ ␴ Max Min equacy of EWM to calculate the strength of such members failing
as a consequence of local buckling, overall buckling or a combi-
PCS 30 1.041 0.067 1.166 0.942
nation of these two modes. The value of local buckling strength,
I 30 1.042 0.057 1.158 0.967 required in the EWM, was evaluated using the CUFSM 共referred
RHS 30 1.007 0.016 1.039 0.962 to as EWM-CUFSM兲 as well as the NAS 共2007兲 equations 共re-
a
Number of specimens. ferred to as EWM-NAS兲. In EWM-CUFSM, the local buckling
coefficient 共K兲 for the critical element is calculated from local
Data on Strength of Channel, I, and RHS under buckling stress 共␴crl兲 obtained using CUFSM. But for the non-
Compression critical elements of the cross section, K value corresponding to
hinged boundary condition is used. In EWM-NAS, local buckling
Extensive set of test results dealing with strength of plain channel, coefficients 4.0 and 0.43 are used for stiffened and unstiffened
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I, and RHS sections having different plate slenderness as well as compression elements, respectively. For overall buckling strength,
member slenderness are available in literature. Test results on appropriate effective length factors are used. The effect of the end
fixed plain channel compression members 共Mulligan and Peköz boundary condition on local buckling strength is disregarded be-
1984; Talja, 1990; Young 1998; Peköz 1987兲, hinged ended rect- cause it is negligible for plates with large aspect ratio.
angular tubular members 共Key et al. 1988; Wilkinson and Han- The comparison between the experimental and EWM is pre-
cock 1997, Niemi and Rinnevalli 1990兲, and hinged ended ISs sented in Table 2 and Figs. 4–6. The strength evaluated using the
共Kalyanaraman et al. 1979兲 are used in this study. EWM-CUFSM compare better with test results than that based on
EWM-NAS. The mean, standard deviation, maximum and mini-
mum values of the ratio of the strength as obtained from the
Table 2. Summary of Statistics of PEWM / Ptest EWM-CUFSM to that obtained from tests are given in Table 2.
Method Section n a
␮ ␴ Max Min
Thus, although the EWM method is tedious and time consuming,
it is seen that it can evaluate the strength of such members with
EWM-NAS PCS 43 0.969 0.166 1.438 0.759 adequate accuracy as long as the element interaction is considered
IS 31 0.865 0.103 1.099 0.693 in evaluating the buckling stress of the critical elements.
RHS 49 0.947 0.066 1.017 0.799 While there is large number of test results, the results do not
EWM-CUFSM PCS 43 1.025 0.162 1.438 0.791 encompass the entire member dimension in the range of practical
IS 31 0.982 0.136 1.287 0.714 interest. Additional tests are expensive and time consuming. Al-
RHS 49 0.960 0.067 1.133 0.818 though finite element 共FE兲 simulations calibrated with test results
a
Number of tests.

Fig. 4. Comparison design methods with test results

Fig. 5. Variation of ratio with respect to local buckling slenderness

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Fig. 6. Variation of ratio with respect to overall slenderness

can be used to generate the additional data, the FE simulation
itself can give an error in the range of ⫺10% to 10% compared to
test data 共Young and Yan, 2002兲. The comparison of EWM with
test results 共Table 2兲 indicates that the EWM-CUFSM can be used
to generate the data on strength of member under uniform com-
pression with equal accuracy as from FE simulations. Though the
comparison of new design method with an existing design method
has limitations, in this study EWM-CUFSM was used to generate
additional data for PCS, IS, and RHS sections for comparison
with DSM due to adequate validation of EWM-CUFSM with test
results, presented earlier. The dimensions of the sections, varying
over a large range of interest, used in the study are given in Table
3.
Comparison of the DSM with Test and EWM Results
In this section the DSM 关Eqs. 共1a兲–共1d兲兴 is used to evaluate the
strength of the PCS, RHS, and IS compression members. The test
results available in the literature 共as discussed earlier兲 are used for
the purpose of comparison. The elastic local buckling load of the
section, Pcrl, required in DSM is computed using CUFSM, CFE,
and NAS 共2007兲 as three alternatives. For Pcrl-NAS, the local buck-
ling stresses 共␴crl兲 of the individual plate element of the cross
section are calculated using the K values given in NAS 共2007兲.
Then minimum of the local buckling stresses of the individual
plate elements is used for the calculation of Pcrl-NAS.
The mean and standard deviation of the ratio of the strength by
DSM to that from experiments are given in Table 4 and to that
from EWM-CUFSM data in Table 4. Table 4 indicates that the
mean of the ratios is in the range of 1 ⫾ 0.07 and the standard
deviation less than 0.15, showing that the DSM compares well
with the experimental data. In Table 4 it is seen that the mean of
the ratios is in the range of 1 ⫾ 0.04 and the standard deviation
less than 0.08, which indicates that the DSM evaluates strengths
as good as EWM-CUFSM in the practical ranges of section pa-
rameters. Figs. 4–6 and Figs. 7–9 show the comparison of DSM
with experiments and EWM-CUFSM, respectively. It is seen that
the DSM predicts the strength of the compression member with
acceptable accuracy even in these sections which do not have
edge or intermediate stiffeners, especially if CUFSM or CFE is
used to evaluate the local buckling strength. It is seen that the
ratio 共PDSM / Ptest, PDSM / PEWM-CUFSM兲 does not show any system-
atic trend, either with respect to the local buckling or the over all
buckling slenderness ratios. Hence it can be concluded that the
DSM does not disregard any important parameters. The maxi-

Table 3. Values of the Parameters Used to Generate Data by EWM

PCS IS RHS
kL / rmin 40, 80, 120, 160, 180, and 250 40, 80, 120, 160, 180, and 250 40, 80, 120, 160, 180, and 250
b/t 15, 25, 35, 45, 60, and 90 10, 25, 50, 75, and 90 25, 50, 75, 100, 125, 150, 175, and 200
h/t 50, 100, 150, and 200 10, 25, 50, 100, 150, and 200 6.25, 12.5, 18.75, 25, 31.25, 37.5, 43.75, and 50

Table 4. Summary of Statistics

PDSM / Ptest PDSM / PEWM-CUFSM
a a
Method Section n ␮ ␴ Max. Min. Method Section n ␮ ␴ Max. Min.
DSM-CUFSM PCS 43 1.068 0.142 1.437 0.831 DSM-CUFSM PCS 144 1.036 0.064 1.243 0.869
IS 31 0.937 0.082 1.101 0.714 IS 210 0.988 0.081 1.228 0.755
RHS 49 0.971 0.069 1.133 0.818 RHS 192 1.031 0.067 1.280 0.915
DSM-CFE PCS 43 1.056 0.147 1.437 0.812 DSM-CFE PCS 144 1.037 0.064 1.231 0.883
IS 31 0.941 0.082 1.109 0.714 IS 210 0.988 0.080 1.247 0.769
RHS 49 0.973 0.069 1.133 0.818 RHS 192 1.028 0.068 1.280 0.911
DSM-NAS PCS 43 0.964 0.176 1.437 0.693 DSM-NAS PCS 144 0.951 0.107 1.214 0.658
IS 31 0.724 0.056 0.858 0.63 IS 210 0.804 0.153 1.018 0.516
RHS 49 0.964 0.069 1.133 0.818 RHS 192 0.986 0.091 1.274 0.808
a
Number of tests.

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Fig. 7. Comparison DSM with EWM-CUFSM for PCS compression members

mum deviation of Ptheory / Ptest from the value of 1.0 is in the
intermediate overall buckling slenderness range 关0.5
⬍ 冑 共Py / Pcre兲 ⬍ 1.5兴. Fig. 6 shows that EWM also gives the same
extent of error in this slenderness range. This may be because the
single column strength curve used in the NAS for overall buck-
ling may not be accounting for the effect of imperfection ad-
equately, which is considerable in the intermediate slenderness
ratio range. A better estimate of overall buckling strength of com-
pression member may be possible through the use of multiple
column strength curves, similar to that in Eurocode 3 关European
Committee for Standardization 共CEN兲 2005兴.
Conclusions
In this study the applicability of DSM for the strength of PCS,
ISs, and RHS, which do not have stiffener and hence do not suffer
distortional buckling, is evaluated. It is observed that the DSM
can also be applied to calculate the strength of such compression
members with out either lip or intermediate stiffeners. The com-
parative study with test results and EWM-CUFSM results has
shown that DSM estimates the strength of these compression
members within acceptable accuracy, for practical purposes.

Fig. 8. Comparison DSM with EWM-CUFSM for IS compression members

Fig. 9. Comparison DSM with EWM-CUFSM for RHS compression members

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