Experiments of Cold-Formed Steel Connections

and Portal Frames

Y. B. Kwon1; H. S. Chung2; and G. D. Kim3
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Abstract: A series of connection tests which were composed of closed cold-formed steel sections were conducted to investigate the
performance of the connections constituting a pitched roof portal frame. The flexural strength of the section was investigated first and the
structural behavior of the connections including the moment-rotation relation, the yield, and ultimate moment capacity of the connections
were studied experimentally. The connection test specimens consisted of column base, eave, and apex connections of the portal frame. The
main factors of the connection test were the thickness and the shape of the mild steel connection element. Finally, the portal frame was
tested under both constant vertical and increasing horizontal loads to failure. The experimental results were compared with the numerical
analysis results. The semirigid connection concept was considered for the analysis of the portal frame using the secant stiffness of the
connections, which were estimated from the moment-rotation curves of the connections tested.
DOI: 10.1061/共ASCE兲0733-9445共2006兲132:4共600兲
CE Database subject headings: Frames; Cold-formed steel; Connections, semi-rigid; Connections; Stiffness.

Introduction However, the column and rafter member should be studied to

The extensive application of cold-formed steel framing in the
Korean construction industry was launched with the introduction
of the steel residential building in the late 1990s. Although it was
first applied to residential buildings, the advantages of the cold-
formed steel sections have resulted in broadening its application
to other building types such as public buildings, restaurants,
schools, and health care centers. Some of the various needs could
not be satisfied only by restructuring techniques using the con-
ventional cold-formed sections. Since the standard channel and
lipped channel sections could not satisfy the needs for construc-
tion of long span portal frames, the research and development
of the new cold-formed steel sections have been executed. Some
specific connection elements of special shape are necessary
to make the connections for portal frames 共Makelainen and
Kankaanpaa 1996; Mills and LaBoube 2002兲 composed of unique
cold-formed sections.
This paper describes the experiments conducted to develop a
new cold-formed shape and to apply it to the portal frame system,
which could be tailored for the long span truss system of various
architectural buildings 共Kwon et al. 2002兲. The performance of
the portal frame is mainly dependent on the performance of the
connections constituting the portal frame 共Hancock et al. 2001兲.
understand the structural behavior of the portal frame. The test
series consisted of flexural tests, connection tests, and portal
frame tests. Primarily, the structural behavior of rafters has been
studied for the application to the portal frame system. In addition,
the performance of connections such as the column-base anchor
connection, the column-rafter connection, and the rafter-rafter
connection constituting the portal frame were studied. Finally,
cold-formed steel pitched roof portal frames were tested under
both constant vertical load and increasing horizontal load to
failure.
The moment-rotation relation, flexural rigidity, yield, and ulti-
mate moment of the connections were investigated. The main
factors of the connection tests were the connection element shape,
the thickness of connecting members, and the restraint against
torsion of the rafter section. A nonlinear analysis was conducted
using the program LUSAS 共2002兲, and its outcome was compared
with the test results. In the analysis of the portal frame, the bilin-
ear secant stiffness of the connection obtained from the moment-
rotation curves of connections tested was used for the rotational
rigidity of the semirigid connection.

1
Professor, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Yeungnam
Univ., Gyongsan, 712-749, Korea. E-mail: ybkwon@yu.ac.kr
2
Director, R&D Team, iMetal Co., Ltd., Ilsan, 411-802, Korea.
3
Chief Researcher, Steel Structure Technology Division, Research
Institute of Industrial Science and Technology, Hwasung, 445-810,
Korea.
Note. Associate Editor: Benjamin W. Schafer. Discussion open until
September 1, 2006. Separate discussions must be submitted for individual
papers. To extend the closing date by one month, a written request must
be filed with the ASCE Managing Editor. The manuscript for this paper
was submitted for review and possible publication on February 22, 2005;
approved on October 17, 2005. This paper is part of the Journal of
Structural Engineering, Vol. 132, No. 4, April 1, 2006. ©ASCE, ISSN
0733-9445/2006/4-600–607/$25.00. Fig. 1. Dimension and section geometry 共unit: mm兲

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 Table 1. Section Properties
Inertia moment
Depth Thickness Area Effective area
Specimen 共mm兲 共mm兲 共cm2兲 共cm2兲 Ix共cm4兲 Iy共cm4兲
150PRY08 150 0.8 3.28 2.99 83.24 7.71
150PRY05 150 0.5 2.05 1.39 53.87 4.83

Section Geometry and Properties
The test section used for the column and rafter member of the
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section under pure bending using the program THIN-WALL
共1996兲. The buckling stress and mode are shown in Fig. 2. The
local buckling stress of the section was about 320 MPa at a half-
wavelength of 40 mm. The local buckling moment computed with

portal frame was a closed cold-formed steel section, which was

made by cold-rolling with the clinching technique. The flange
width and web depth of the cold-formed section were 40 and
150 mm, respectively, and the thickness of each section was 0.5
or 0.8 mm. The pitch of clinching on the web was 25 mm in
staggered position. The section geometry of the cold-formed steel
section is shown in Fig. 1 and the section properties are given in
Table 1. The effective area was calculated according to American
Iron and Steel Institute 共AISI兲 specifications 共1996兲 assuming that
the section was under uniform compression.
the section modulus based on the gross area was 3.55 kN m. The
distortional buckling is unlikely to occur at intermediate half-
wavelength, since the distortional buckling strength of the closed
section is high. When there was an increase in the half-
wavelength, the section showed a global flexural-torsional buck-
ling mode with negligible amount of torsional deformation. Thus
the buckling mode of the long flexural member is likely to be a
mixed mode of local and flexural buckling, since the local buck-
ling stress is lower than flexural buckling stress and has signifi-
cant postbuckling strength reserve.

Material Properties
The structural steel grade of the cold-formed steel section was
SGC580. The nominal yield and the ultimate tensile strength were
570 and 580 MPa, respectively. The tensile coupons were cut
from the flat area and the corner of the sections. Tensile coupon
test results are given in Table 2. The experimental yield and ulti-
mate tensile strength were higher than the nominal yield and ul-
timate tensile strength, respectively. However, the final elongation
ranged from 8.5 to 10.7% with the average of 10%, which was
significantly lower than the mild steel. The yield and ultimate
strength of the corner coupon was higher than those of the flat
coupon by 6–20%, probably as a result of the cold-forming pro-
cess. The thinner coupon showed a larger difference than the
thicker one because of the amount of plastic strain.
The connection element was made of the mild steel plate. The
structural steel grade was SM400 共ASTM A36兲, of which the
nominal yield and the ultimate tensile strength was 240 and
400 MPa, respectively.
The diameter of the self-drilling screw fastener used for join-
ing the cold-formed steel section and the connection element was
4.8 mm, and the nominal shear strength capacity was 1.7 kN,
which was provided by the manufacturer.
Connection Test
Shape of Connection Members
The detailing of connection elements was designed in accordance
with the slope of the pitched roof portal frame and the cold-
formed steel section geometry. The test connection specimens of
the portal frame consisted of the column base, the column-to-
rafter at the eave, and the rafter-to-rafter connections at the ridge.
The realistic pitched roof portal frame model was selected, the
dimensions of which are spacing= 5.4 m, height= 2.7 m, roof
slope 3:10, and bay= 1.2 m.
Two types of column base connection elements are shown in
Figs. 3 and 4. One connection element shape was the ␲-type and
the other was L-type. The column base was firmly anchored to the
massive concrete block using two chemical anchor bolts of
16 mm in diameter and 190 mm in length, of which the shear
strength was 38.8 kN in case the compressive strength of concrete
block was 20 MPa. The embedded length of the anchor was ap-
proximately 125 mm to prevent the pull-out failure of anchor
bolts 共Fastening 2004兲.
The profile of the basic eave connection element at the corner
of the portal frame is shown in Fig. 5. The angle between the

Buckling Strength of Cold-Formed Pry Sections

The elastic buckling analysis of the section under pure bending

was carried out to study the buckling behavior of the 150PRY08

Table 2. Mechanical Properties

Ultimate
Yield stress Fy tensile stress Fu Elongation
Specimen 共MPa兲 共MPa兲 Fu / F y 共%兲
150PRY05 Corner 739.3 760.3 1.03 10.7
Flat 622.5 631.2 1.01 13.0
150PRY08 Corner 671.1 692.8 1.03 8.52
Flat 632.8 646.4 1.02 9.34 Fig. 2. Buckling stress under pure bending

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Fig. 5. Eave connection element 共unit: mm兲

tions could not occur before the local buckling of the sections and
the large deformation of the connection element.

Connection Test Procedures

The connection tests were executed by the displacement control
method with the loading velocity of 1 mm/ min using a 250 kN
Fig. 3. Dimensions of column base connection elements 共unit: mm兲: testing machine. The connection test configuration is shown in
共a兲 ␲-type and 共b兲 L-type Fig. 8共a兲. The profile and thickness of connection elements were
considered as main factors in the connection tests. The restraint
against the torsion of the section was taken as another factor to be
rafter and column center lines was 106.7°, which made the roof
considered. The connection specimen was loaded in the upward
slope 3:10. The four types of eave connection element are distin-
or downward direction in order to find out the effects of the tor-
guished by the specific connection element plates screwed on the
sion of the sections. The specially designed grip as shown in
150PRY08 section of the rafter and column end parts joined. The
Fig. 8共b兲 was attached to the loaded section end to prevent the
types of connection elements studied are divided into four catego-
torsion of the section in the upward loading tests. However, the
ries in accordance with the presence of an additional lip and a
torsion of the loaded end of the section was not prevented at the
stiffener as shown in Fig. 6. The lip was attached outwardly at the
downward loading tests for comparison. The lateral displacements
edge of the connection plate and the stiffener was attached to
were measured by using displacement transducers 共LVDT兲 lo-
the web of a basic L-type connection element by removing the
cated at the centroid of the screw fasteners of the connections at
bottom flange and welding a bracket.
the joining region of the rafter and the column ends, and at the
The specific apex connection elements at the ridge as shown in
point which was 8 cm apart from the edge of the connection
Fig. 7 were made in a similar way to the eave connection
element of the loaded member side. For the moment-rotation re-
elements. The ridge angle between the centerline of the rafters
lationship of the connection, the rotations were calculated from
connected was 146.6°.
the measured displacements.
The specific connection element was made of the mild steel
共nominal yield strength Fy = 240 MPa兲 plate by brake pressing of
two separate elements and then welding them together. The col-
umn and rafter sections were inserted into the connection element
and fixed using self-drilling screw fasteners. The holes for screw
fasteners in the connection element were prepunched at the exact
position before fabrication in order to assist the work process.
The thickness of the connection elements for column base,
apex, and eave connections was 1.6, 2.3, and 3.2 mm, but mainly
2.3 mm. The number of screw fasteners was decided by using the
shear strength of the screw connections from the AISI specifica-
tions 共1996兲, so that the bearing and tilting failure of the connec-

Fig. 4. Column base connection elements Fig. 6. Types of eave connection elements

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 and subsequently fitting a line through the test results in the pos-
tyield region. The intersection of the fitted line and moment axis
was assumed to be the experimental yield moment 共Venkatara-
maiah and Roorda 1982兲. Since the change in overall flexural
stiffness was subtle and the choice of intersection point was dif-
ficult, the average value of the two methods was taken as the
experimental yield moment.
The yield and the ultimate moment were significantly different
according to the type and the thickness of the connection element.
Due to the effect of the shear force and the bimoment 共Hancock
1998兲 induced at the joint, the yield moment of the connection
obtained from the test was usually lower than the theoretical local
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Fig. 7. Apex connection element 共unit: mm兲

buckling moment under pure bending.

Connection Test Results Column Base Connections

The general failure mode of the connections tested was the local The moment-rotation relations of the column base connections
buckling of the column or rafter section near the connection showed semirigid characteristics explicitly as shown in Figs. 10共a
member, followed by the fracture of the clinching as shown in and b兲. The connection composed of a 3-mm-thick connection
Figs. 9共a–d兲. Most of the test connections showed the local buck- element showed severe deformation of the connection element
ling of the members as shown in Fig. 9共a兲. The connection which before the local buckling of the column section, and the yield and
was made of the thin connection element showed severe defor- ultimate moments obtained were lower than those made of thicker
mation of the connection element as shown in Fig. 9共c兲, prior to plates of 4.3 and 5.6 mm in thickness, respectively. Thus the
the local buckling of the column and rafter sections. In some
cases, the weld was fractured as shown in Fig. 9共b兲.
Since the yield moment of the connections cannot be deter-
mined easily, the experimental yield moment was taken as the
moment which caused first yield or local buckling to occur.
The yield moment was determined by examining the change in
the slope of the moment-rotation curves, which is illustrated in
Fig. 10共a兲. The second set of experimental yield moment was
determined by plotting the moment versus the square of rotation

Fig. 8. Test configurations and special grip: 共a兲 test configurations Fig. 9. Failure modes of connections: 共a兲 local buckling; 共b兲 local
and 共b兲 special grip 共unit: mm兲 failure; 共c兲 deformation of connection; and 共d兲 fracture of clinching

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Fig. 11. Effects of torsion of sections

of the column section. The initial stiffness and strength capacity

Fig. 10. Moment-rotation curves of column base connections: 共a兲
␲-type and 共b兲 L-type
thickness of the connection element proved to affect the flexural
strength of the connections significantly as expected. The CB-
L-3T curve was different from other test results, as the deforma-
tion of the column was negligible and the failure was due to the
deformation of the connection element.
Cold-formed steel structures are generally characterized by re-
duced postelastic strength and as a consequence, by low ductility
in comparison with hot-rolled sections 共Dubina 2004兲. However,
this test series of cold-formed screw-fastened connections
displayed fairly high ductility which was defined by
␮ = ␪u/␪y
where ␪y and ␪u = rotations corresponding to yield and maximum
moment, respectively. The rotation ductility ranged from 3.0 to
4.6 for L-type connections and 4.0–16.0 for ␲-type connections
as shown in Table 3.
Since the number of screw-fasteners was designed in order to
prevent the shear/bearing failure of screw-fasteners, the yield
moment was determined by the lower value between the yield
moment of the connection element and the local buckling moment
of the joints were mainly decided by those two components. The
ratios of the ultimate moment to the yield moment ranged from
1.92 to 3.38. The initial rotational stiffness K0 is the secant stiff-
ness from the origin to the moment corresponding to the rotation
of 0.005 rad on the moment-rotation curve as illustrated in
Fig. 10共b兲. It is half the slope of 0.01 rad of a hinged end of the
simple beam corresponding to the central deflection of L / 300,
which is the allowable deflection limit by the Korean building
codes 共2000兲.
Samples of results are shown in Fig. 11 in order to find out the
effect of the torsion of the section on the load bearing capacity of
the joint. The torsional restraint of the section had a significant
effect on the flexural strength of the connection. Since the torsion
had a negative effect on the flexural stiffness and ultimate mo-
ment capacity, the torsion of the column section lowered the ul-
timate flexural moment of the connection by approximately 20%.
Since the final failure was mainly dependent on the fracture of the
clinching, the ultimate moments of connections composed of
␲-type and L-type connection elements were similar. However,
the initial flexural stiffness and the yield moment were signifi-
cantly different.
Apex „Rafter-to-Rafter… Connections
共1兲
The apex connection test series were composed of four types for
the connection element thickness of 2.3 mm. The 1.6- and
3.0-mm-thick connection specimens were added to type-3 and
type-4 connection elements. The test results are shown in Table 4
and Figs. 12共a and b兲.
The type-3 apex connection element, which has a lip and a
stiffener, provided higher yield and ultimate moment than the
other types of connection elements. The basic type-1 connection

Table 4. Test Results of Apex Connections

Table 3. Test Results of Column Base Connections My Mu K0
My Mu K0 Specimens 共kN m兲 共kN m兲 Mu / My 共kN/rad兲 ␮ = ␪u / ␪ y
Specimens 共kN m兲 共kN m兲 Mu / My 共kN/rad兲 ␮ = ␪u / ␪ y RR-1-2.3T 1.7 4.3 2.5 59.2 8.0
CB-L-3T Not available due to failure of connection element RR-2-2.3T 1.2 3.8 3.2 83.9 7.8
CB-L-4.3T 2.4 4.6 1.9 32.8 3.0 RR-3-1.6T 2.0 4.2 2.1 23.3 2.9
CB-L-5.6T 2.1 4.7 2.2 32.3 4.6 RR-3-2.3T 1.8 5.1 2.8 39.0 4.3
CB-␲-3T 1.3 4.4 3.4 36.2 14.0 RR-3-3.2T 1.5 4.1 2.7 71.9 6.0
CB-␲-4.3T 1.6 5.1 3.2 50.9 11.3 RR-4-1.6T 1.4 3.4 2.4 25.4 6.2
CB-␲-5.6T 1.4 4.2 3.0 41.5 16.0 RR-4-2.3T 1.4 3.8 2.7 23.2 5.1
CB-␲-5.6T共R兲 3.1 5.2 1.7 63.4 4.0 RR-4-2.3T 共R兲 1.5 3.9 2.6 60.3 4.7

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 Table 5. Test Results of Eave Connections
My Mu K0
Specimens 共kN m兲 共kN m兲 Mu / My 共kN/rad兲 ␮ = ␪u / ␪ y
RC-1-2.3T 2.4 4.0 1.6 19.4 2.6
RC-1-2.3T共R兲 2.1 8.7 4.1 14.8 2.1
RC-2-2.3T 2.1 3.8 1.8 14.0 5.1
RC-2-2.3T共R兲 2.3 6.5 2.8 23.7 2.2
RC-3-2.3T 1.5 2.8 1.9 20.0 2.8
RC-3-2.3T共R兲 3.1 7.0 2.3 22.7 2.5
RC-4-2.3T 1.0 2.5 2.5 15.2 5.3
RC-4-2.3T共R兲 2.4 7.4 3.1 21.3 2.9
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Note: 共R兲 = torsion restrained.

Eave „Rafter-to-Column… Connections

The eave connection tests focused on the connection element
types that were 2.3 mm in thickness. The moment-rotation curves
are shown in Fig. 13 and the test results are summarized in
Table 5. The initial flexural stiffness showed little difference
among the connection element types but the ultimate moment
varied to a great extent. This is due to the restraining capacity
against the torsion of the rafter section, which was different be-
tween the connection element types.
Fig. 12. Moment-rotation curves of apex connections: 共a兲
The ultimate moment of the connection type-1 with a lip and a
comparison between connection element types 共2.3T兲 and 共b兲 type-3
stiffener was 4.0 kN m and the type-4 was 2.5 kN m. Those of
connections
type-2 and type-3 were 3.8 and 2.8 kN m, respectively. It was
concluded that the lip and the stiffener could increase the flexural
strength significantly.
displayed lower flexural stiffness and strength. The thickness of
Both the flexural strength and stiffness exhibited serious dif-
the connection element did not cause any difference in the ulti-
ferences according to the existence of the torsional restraint. The
mate moment of connections. However, the flexural stiffness and
ultimate moment obtained with the torsion of the section re-
yield moment are quite significant as shown in Fig. 12共b兲. The
strained was much larger than that without torsional restraint. The
reason is that the final failure was due to the fracture of clinching
flexural stiffness was in a similar pattern to the ultimate moment.
of cold-formed steel sections. The ratios of the ultimate moment
However, the results of the yield moment were not as clear as the
to the yield moment range from 2.1 to 3.2 with the average value
ultimate moment, since the yield moment or local buckling point
being 2.7.
could not be accurately perceived from the moment versus curva-
The ultimate moment could be easily read from the moment-
ture curves. The extent of realistic torsional restraint of connec-
rotation curves, but the yield moment could not be so accurately
tions lies between these two extremes, since purlins and girts
obtained. Therefore the basic design strength of connections
prevent lateral movement of the flange of the portal frame. In
would be the ultimate moment rather than the yield moment.
cases without torsional restraint, the ultimate moment obtained
Since the buckling moment of the cold-formed section lies be-
from tests was slightly lower than the analytical buckling moment
tween the yield moment and the ultimate moment obtained from
under pure bending by 0.75– 1.05 kN m for type-3 and type-4.
tests, the nonlinear moment-rotation relationship should be con-
However, the torsional restraint enhanced the ultimate moment by
sidered in the structural analysis and design of the portal frame in
more than twice.
order to project accurately the performance of the connections for
portal frames.

Fig. 13. Moment-rotation curves of eave connections Fig. 14. Test frame geometry 共unit: mm兲

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Fig. 16. Horizontal load versus displacement curve

for the connections was idealized using the bilinear secant stiff-
Fig. 15. Portal frame test configuration ness obtained from the tests for the column base, apex, and eave
connections, respectively, which were obtained by drawing a line
from the origin to the moment corresponding to the rotation of
Pitched Roof Portal Frame Test 0.005 rad and then extending the line to the ultimate moment on
the moment-rotation curves of connections tested as illustrated in
Three realistic portal frames were tested to investigate the perfor- Fig. 10共b兲. The numerical and test results for F-B agreed quite
mance and behavior of cold-formed portal frames. The test con- well until the horizontal displacement became approximately
figurations are shown in Figs. 14 and 15. Three test frame models twice the allowable limit. Since the numerical analysis of the
are summarized in Table 6. The bay width was 1.2 m, and the six portal frame could not include the material inelasticity and frac-
purlins and four girts were attached in equal space, respectively. ture of clinching of connections, the load calculated was much
The horizontal and vertical load was applied by the two actuators. higher than test results after the displacement was increased
The total vertical load of 66.0 kN, that was 30% of the design beyond twice the allowable limit.
load in the amount, was first applied downward at the 12 blocking
points of purlin ends and then horizontal load was applied in-
creasingly to the failure by the displacement control with the
velocity of 1.0 mm/ min. The horizontal displacement was mea-
sured at the corners and the vertical displacement was measured
at the ridge of the portal frame.
The horizontal load-displacement relations obtained from the
tests were shown in Fig. 16. The allowable horizontal displace-
ment limit 共L / 200兲 according to Korean building codes 共2000兲 is
also shown in the figure. At the load of 2.0– 3.0 kN, the decrease
of the stiffness of the frame commenced due to the local buckling
at the column top, and it was decreased continuously up to the
maximum load. The maximum horizontal loads were 8.5 kN for
F-B, 7.5 kN for F-N, and 5.1 kN for P-N, respectively. It was
found from the comparison between P-N and F-N that the stiff-
ness and the performance of the column base connections had
significant effects on the load carrying capacity of portal frames.
The P-N displayed much lower strength and stiffness than the
other tests. The stiffness of the eave and apex connections
had little effect on the stiffness of the portal frame. However,
the ultimate load was affected by the performance of those
connections.
The numerical analysis was conducted using LUSAS 共2002兲
for comparison with the test results. A simplified model with the
beam and joint elements that could consider overall joint charac-
teristics explicitly was adopted for the analysis. The joint element

Table 6. Test Frame Model

Column base connection Eave connection Apex connection
Frame model 共t = 4.3 mm兲 共t = 2.3 mm兲 共t = 2.3 mm兲
Fig. 17. Failure mechanism of portal frame: 共a兲 local buckling at
F-B ␲-type type-1 type-1 column top; 共b兲 local buckling at rafter; 共c兲 clinching failure at rafter;
F-N ␲-type type-3 type-3 共d兲 clinching failure at column; 共e兲 local buckling at column base;
P-N L-type 共t = 5.6 mm兲 type-3 type-3 and 共f兲 deformed portal frame

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 The design loads based on the condition where the wind ve-
locity is 30 m / s with the exposure grade B according to Korean
building codes 共2000兲, is also shown in Fig. 16 for the reference.
In the allowable stress design of structures in Korea, F-B and
F-N can be applied to the portal frame with the load condition
of wind velocity 30 m / s and exposure grade B, which is the usual
condition.
The failure mechanism of connections of the pitched roof
portal frame was in a similar pattern to the connection tests. As
the load was increased, the local buckling initiated at the top of
the column loaded 关Fig. 17共a兲兴 and the local buckling at the rafter
followed as shown in Fig. 17共b兲. Then the fracture of clinching
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commenced at the lower flange of rafter and column 关Figs. 17共c
and d兲兴 and the local buckling occurred at the bottom of the
column 关Fig. 17共e兲兴. After fracture of clinching, the horizontal
load was increased to some extent. Finally the overall geometry
was deformed as shown in Fig. 17共f兲 when the horizontal load
reached the maximum load.
Conclusion
An extensive experimental study was conducted to investigate the
structural performance of connections for cold-formed steel portal
frames. The structural performance of the specific cold-formed
section was proven adequate for the flexural member constituting
the portal frame.
The connection tested exhibited nonlinear moment-rotation re-
lationships and the stiffness of the connection could be catego-
rized in the semirigid connection. The numerical and experimen-
tal study of the connections proposed here showed that the
connections had sufficient strength and stiffness to constitute the
pitched roof portal frame effectively. The pitched roof portal
frame test showed that the semirigid connections developed had
high structural performance and could successfully be applied to
portal frames. Consequently, the specific connection elements de-
veloped could be used for the portal frame composed of the
unique cold-formed sections. Among the connections according
to the locations, the stiffness of the column base connection had
significant effects on the load carrying capacity of the portal
frame.
The realistic torsional restraint of the column and rafter section
should be properly provided by girts and purlins with the portal
JOURNAL OF STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING © ASCE / APRIL 2006 / 607
J. Struct. Eng. 2006.132:600-607.
frames in order to prevent the occurrence of the flexural-torsional
buckling at a lower loading stage.
The failure of the connections of portal frames was caused by
the rupture of clinching that followed the local buckling in the
cold-formed steel section and the excessive rotation of connec-
tions. Therefore, so as to enhance the ultimate moment strength of
the connection and then the performance of the portal frame, the
clinching should be firmly tightened.
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