Cold formed sections The forming process affects the toughness of cold formed sections and their use in external structures. Welding is prohibited near the comers of cold formed sections in certain circumstances, Richard Henderson of the SCI discusses the issues. gure 1-Comer ‘dmencone Tae toughness af steel is affected bythe extent of strain thas undergone aswell as by other factors. This facts taken into account when determining te limiting thickness for materials using BS EN 1993-1-10. The limiting thickness of pate or hot rolled or hot finished structural sections does natin general depend on the extent of stain because such elements are not subject to plastic strain during thei use, norin the course oftheir manufacture. This does not apply however to cold formed square and rectangular hollow sections, which experience significant strains at the corners of the profile. Neither does it apply to beams which have been pre-cambered by cold bending ‘The product standard for cold formed welded structural hallow sections, 8S EN 10219-1:2006 requires tat for square or rectangular sections, the test pieces for impact testing are taken ‘ther longitudinally or transversely midway between the comers fom one ofthe sides not containing the weld, The impat therefore late to material which is unaffected by cold forming, thus tacitly acknowledging thatthe forming process affects the material toughness According to clause 6,72 ofthe product standard there ino requirement for impact tests fr specified thicknesses of ess than 6 mm. The effect of stain during cold forming must be taken into account when determining te limiting thickness of material ‘of given sub-grade. According to BS EN 1993-1-10 and its UK National Annex, the reference temperature 7, for determining the toughness ofa steel element: f, Tyg FAT 4 AT, +A, + AT, T, where 7,487) conslered together represent the minimum effective temperature ofthe stel part, AT, isa safety allowance, A, isan adjustment for strain ate and 7, san adjustment for the extent of strain during cold forming The UK National Annex collects together factors affecting the safety of elements and gives an equation for AT, a follows AT = Aly Aly + Aly +A, +40, where AI, isan adjustment for detail type, A, for gross stress concentration, A, for Charpy test temperature, AT, forstress level and 47, fr stength grade, The procedure s h aT, =0. The temperature adjustment for cold forming i given in clause 23.12) of the standard as minus three times the percentage strain expressed as degrees Celsius. A strain of 10% would result ina temperature adjustment of -30°C.Thisis potentially significant when considering the adoption af cold formed ‘The strain resulting fom cold forming SHS or RHS tubes can bbe determined from the limiting dimensions inthe product standard as follows, Consider the comer of box ection as shown in Figure 1. The external corner profiles determined in the product standard by measuring dimensions and C or. ‘Thelength of the centre lines the origina length before forming, For one corner, the cente line length = lee +) ag Theoutsde length aterformingis 2 9 + the cogs inlegtn at = 22 fn r DPD ORT ‘The gimensiona tolerances onthe comer radius for diferent thickness ranges taken from the product standard and used to determine the maximum percent tain due to cold forming in able 1 (over page) by substituting the minimum extemal radius inthe formulafor strain. The strain could therefore be as high as 45% for materiales than 6mm thick bent tothe tightest radius giving a temperature cjstment or cold forming af-3 25 = 135 Chen determining the limiting thickness. Such an adjustment puts 28 Thestrainisbetes 2ore 307 Geta 2aTo3eT Tost >26 ey 1sTt0247 the relevant temperature wel outside the range covered bythe tables in 8S EN 1993-1-10 and PD 6695-1-10, ‘The SCI recent publication 9419, Brite fracture: selection of steel sungrade to @S EN 1993-1-10 addresses the acknowledged ‘conservatism in the standard for structures where fatigues not asignficant design consideration and presents tables of limiting material thicknesses fr ths crcumstance. However, the tables do not extend tothe much lower temperatures indicated when considering the adjustments fr the high strains resulting ‘rom cold forming. SCI has produced values fr the relevant ‘temperatures and these are gven in Table 2 for 535512 material {the common steel grade for hollow sections ‘Asan example considera cold formed section of tea! ‘grade 535512 with thickness inthe range 0 to 6 mm used in an ‘external building environment where fatigues not a design consideration, witha high design stress (o,,>05f,).no gross stress concentration and with a welded detail classed as"Welded very severe Temperature adjustments are given inTable 3: From Table 2 the limiting thickness ofthe cold formed section is 5 mm, Limiting thicknesses for sections inthe higher thickness ranges inthe product standard ae given in Tables 4 and 5 for detals classed as "welded very severe’ and “welded severe’. Table 5 also applies toa detall which sciassed as welded very severe and hasa design stress of ess than 0.3, [An examination of the ses inthe Slue Book shows that certain sections should not be used ifthe attributes of a connection detail corresnonc to those in Table the deta corresponds tothe description in Table 5, there sno restriction fon the catalogue sizes which could be used The stain involved in cold forming circular hollow sections Temperature °C) 70-80-9010 10-120 13040150160 170-180 Tikes ra) 0 we 2 1 8 7 6S Table2Lnting thicknesses forlow temperatures ca ee y Tempeatuer) “18 30 ° ° a a a Total “136 181 Tobe: Temperature austen or determining iting hicks PEN aC ae Clr Unity Phone: 01708 522311 Fax: 01708 559024 TU eu he a Tat canIs much les than that atthe comers of square and rectangular sections (about 10% in the worst case and theres consequently re restriction on the choice of cold formed circular hollow sections, even with the presence ofa gross stress concentration Designers wil also remember that 8S EN 1993-1-82005 Clause 4.14 and Table 4:2 imposes restitions on welding ear cold formed zones, The table is entitled Conditions for welding cold formed zones and adjacent material'and gives ‘maximum thicknesses based on an ratio or strain due to cold forming, Unhelpful, the radius considered inthe clause isthe Internal radius ofthe corner, whereas the product standard BS EN 10219-2 uses the external radius (external comer profile) The corresponding rt values and limiting thicknesses are given In Table 6 (below right. ‘The clause therefore prohibits welding within 5 times the all thickness ofthe cosners of many square and rectangular cold formed sections unless the sea sul killed Aluminium kale ste! (Al > 0.023; with limits on arbon C-< 0.18%), phosphorous ? s 0.026) and sulphur (5s 0.012%). Atematively, tests musthave been caried out to show that welding Is permitted able AI in Annex Ao the product standard indicates the ste! Is fully killed stel witha minimum 0.025 of total aluminium The table gies the chemical composition ofthe steel and Includes maximum percentages by mass of carbon (C = 022%) phosphorous (? < 0.03%) and sulphur (5 < 0.0399), The materi therefore satises the requirement for full-kled aluminium killed stel but allows the percentage of carbon, phosphorous and sulphur to fall outsice the limits epecifid in Table 42 This estrcton prohibits the adoption ofa welded end plate or base plate for most rectangular and square cold formed hollow sections which comply with the product standard but do not ‘meet the lighter requirements for carbon, phosphorous and sulphur in Table 42, GRADES $3555R/J0/J2 no fatigue; external teewor, oetes 31 welded very severe high design stress (2055) no gross stress concentration, S355!24 24 no fatigue; external teewor, vets 7 Welded severe, high design stress (2055) no gross stress concentration, S355!24 wost “4 .eTt0247 a6tol4 2aT307 10te20 2aToas 11026 not given 6 oT Gout ofrange) Coy ey Great r ey Shot Blasting ee Cet err Te ee et emait sales@rainhamsteel.co.uk www.rainhamsteel.co.uk DR RAINHAM STEEL Prous spo7sors of BOXNATION Channel of Cha February 18.