Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

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Materials Today: Proceedings

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An experimental study on the flexural behavior of cold-formed steel

composite beams
A.R. Dar
Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology Srinagar, J&K, 190006, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Local buckling instability under compressive stresses is common in cold-formed steel (CFS) members and
Received 28 June 2019 generally occurs well before the material has reached its yield strength. This results in under-utilization
Received in revised form 5 November 2019 of the cross-section, compared to its full capacity governed by strength failure. Under flexural loading
Accepted 9 November 2019
these CFS members possess sufficient inelastic reserve strength up to the ultimate stage. A recent study
Available online xxxx
indicated that plate girders with tubular flanges offer higher flexural and torsional strengths compared to
the ones with flat flanges. Upon packing of the tubular compression flange of CFS beams with hard mate-
Keywords:
rials like concrete/ timber etc., there will be a substantial delay in early local buckling instabilities, thus
Cold-formed steel
Experiment
improving their load carrying capacity considerably. Although, numerous CFS composite sections have
Efficient profiling been developed recently, very limited lightweight packing materials have been adopted. The current
Buckling study presents an experimental investigation carried out on CFS beams with flanges and webs possessing
Strength rectangular box geometry, packed with suitable low-cost lightweight packing materials, resulting in
novel light-weight CFS composite beams. Four point flexural tests were conducted on these beams with
simply supported end conditions. The ultimate strengths, modes of failure, load vs. displacement plots
were obtained to study their flexural behavior, in order to evaluate the structural efficiency of the differ-
ent packing materials. Lastly, the North American Specifications and Australian New Zealand Standard for
CFS structures were also used for determining the design strengths of the specimens for comparison sake.
This study proved that these novel CFS composite beams have shown better performance considerably.
Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the First International
Conference on Recent Advances in Materials and Manufacturing 2019.

1. Introduction tributed in improving its cross-sectional performance to the max-

Cold-formed steel (CFS) is gaining popularity in the field of
modern fast-track construction due to its favorable features, which
have been significantly improved due to the wide range of research
on the different aspects of CFS members [1–3]. It is well known
that due to low wall thickness of CFS sections, CFS members
undergo various early instabilities, leading to drop in their load
carrying capacities. Local buckling instability under compressive
stresses is common in CFS members and occurs well before the
material has reached its yield strength. This results in under-
utilization of the cross-section, compared to its full capacity, which
is governed by strength failure. Under flexural loading, these CFS
members possess inelastic reserve strengths at the ultimate stage.
A large component of the research on CFS members has con-
E-mail address: abdulrashid@nitsri.net
imum, resulting in highly efficient CFS sections [4–17].
A recent study indicated that plate girders with concrete filled
CFS tubular flanges offer higher flexural and torsional strengths
compared to the ones with flat flanges [18], as shown in Fig. 1.
The new I-girder, with corrugated web and tubular flange filled
with concrete offers higher torsional and flexural stiffness, when
compared to conventional I-girders [19]. Local buckling was pre-
vented by avoiding free edges in CFS channel beams by developing
rectangular hollow flanges, riveted to the web through intermittent
rivet fastening [20]. Efficient cross-sections un-der flexure were
developed by forming closed CFS beams, comprising of more than
one CFS profile [21]. Development of double-box flanged CFS chan-
nel beams resulted in higher buckling resistance, particularly under
pure flexural loading [22]. The adoption of CFS-timber composite
sections as compression members for roof structures, as a measure
to cut down the maintenance costs, resulted in better strength as
well as stiffness features when compared to the non-composite

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.11.098
2214-7853/Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the First International Conference on Recent Advances in Materials and Manufacturing 2019.

Please cite this article as: A. R. Dar, An experimental study on the flexural behavior of cold-formed steel composite beams, Materials Today: Proceedings,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.11.098
2 A.R. Dar / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig. 1. Plate girder with concrete filled CFS tubular flange (Hassanein, 2015).

sections [23]. The flexural resistance, stiffness, ductility and energy

dissipation capability of square light-gauge steel flexural members
improved by adopting concrete as a filler material [24]. The combi-
nation of transverse stiffeners located at the mid-span of the CFS
beams with pentagonal flange filled with concrete, provided a siz-
able enhancement in the load carrying capacity of these beams
[25]. The thickness of both the bamboo plywood and CFS channel
section affects the improvement in flexural capacity of bamboo-
steel composite CFS beams [26]. The utilization of timber planks
as packing material, firmly connected to the compression flange
of CFS steel-timber composite beams, drastically improved the flex-
ural performance of such beams [27]. Plastic moment capacity can
be attained in CFS sections through proper designing [28].
Although, in the recent times, the literature shows numerous
studies on CFS composite sections, very limited lightweight pack-
ing materials have been adopted. This paper presents an experi-
mental investigation carried out on CFS beams with flanges and
webs possessing a rectangular box geometry, packed with numer-
ous lightweight packing materials, resulting in novel lightweight
CFS composite beams. Four point flexural tests were con-ducted
on these beams with simply supported end conditions. The ulti-
mate strengths, modes of failure, load vs. displacement plots were
obtained to study their flexural behavior, in order to evaluate the
structural efficiency of the different packing materials. Lastly, the
North American Specifications [29] and Australian New Zealand
Standard [30] for CFS structures were used for determining the
design strengths of the specimens for comparison sake. Fig. 2. CFS cross-sectional profile adopted for preparation of specimens.

2. Test specimens Table 1

Details of packing materials adopted in various specimens.

Four specimens were prepared by adopting the cross-sectional Specimen Packing in flange Packing in web
profile shown in Fig. 2, with different lightweight packing material Model-I Hollow PVC Hollow PVC
options. From Fig. 2, we can see that the cross-sectional profile Model-II Cardboard Hollow PVC
adopted had both the geometry of the compression flange as well Model-III Cardboard Cardboard
as the web was rectangular. The different elements of the cross- Model-IV Timber Timber

sectional profile were cut from steel sheets of thickness = 1.6 mm

and Fy = 250 MPa, into their requisite sizes by using a shearing
machine. Self-drilling screws of 6.4mmdiameter and 35 mm
length, were used to fasten the elements after being profiled by
using a hydraulic press braking machine. The screw locations
across the cross-section are given in Fig. 2, with the longitudinal
spacing of 200 mm. The details of packing materials adopted in
various specimens are given in Table 1. The cross-sectional details
of various specimens are shown in Fig. 3. The nominal dimensional
details of the various specimens are given in Table 2. The geometric
imperfection was measured both in the transverse as well as in the
longitudinal directions, with the maximum values being
1/1859 mm and 1/1489 mm respectively. After the geo-metric
imperfections were measured, the specimens were mounted on
the loading frame of 500kN capacity. The details pertaining to
the test set-up and loading can be found in [31,32].
3. Results and discussion
The load vs. mid-span displacement responses of all the speci-
mens are shown in Fig. 4. The strength as well as the stiffness char-

Please cite this article as: A. R. Dar, An experimental study on the flexural behavior of cold-formed steel composite beams, Materials Today: Proceedings,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.11.098
 A.R. Dar / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx 3

Fig. 3. Cross-sectional details of the various specimens

Table 2
Nominal and measured dimensions of the specimens.

Specimen Weight Kg/m Thickness (mm) Nominal dimensions (mm)

a b c d e
Model-I 13.23 1.6 150 30 25 200 25
Model-II 15.47 1.6 150 30 25 200 25
Model-III 17.76 1.6 150 30 25 200 25
Model-IV 15.19 1.6 150 30 25 200 25

100 observed in Model-I and IV, thus, indicating that cardboard as a

PFPW
Model-I packing material has better resistance against bearing failure.
CFPW
Model-II However, distortional failure was observed in Model-I and II, par-
75 CFCW
Model-III ticularly in the web region, primarily due to less resistance offered
Model-IV
TFTW by the PVC packing in that region.
Load (kN)

The North American Specifications for cold-formed steel struc-

50
25
0 dards was that the contribution of the packing materials was not
0 5 10 15
Mid-span displacement (mm)
Fig. 4. Load vs. mid-span displacement response of the specimens.
acteristics of all the specimens depended upon the packing mate-
rial adopted, particularly in the flange region. Both the strength
and stiffness decreased in the order given below, except for the
stiffness in Model-III being slightly lower than Model-II. This was
primarily due to larger geometric imperfections in Model-III. It
clearly explains the importance of adopting proper packing mate-
rial, both in the flange as well as the web region.
Model-IV > Model-III > Model-II > Model-I
Local buckling in the regions like lip, flange and web were
observed in the various specimens, except Model-III, which failed
by flexural buckling. Bearing failure at the loading points was
tures (AISI S-100) and Australian Standard (AS/NZ 4600) were used
for determining the strength of the CFS profile, adopted in the var-
ious specimens. Both these standards predicted the strengths of
the various CFS composite beams conservatively. The primary
reason behind the conservative strength predictions by these stan-
20 25 considered in the design. Also, the packing materials helped in pro-
longing/eliminating the early local buckling in the various vulner-
able regions of the cross-section. This further helped the cross-
section in developing more strength, and resulted in higher load
carrying capacities, compared to the ones predicted by the design
standards. The strength, mid-span displacement, strength/weight
ratio, failure modes and design strengths of various specimens
are presented in Table 3.
4. Conclusions
The study presented an experimental investigation carried out
on CFS beams with flanges and webs possessing a rectangular
box geometry, packed with numerous lightweight packing materi-
als, resulting in novel lightweight CFS composite beams. Four point
flexural tests were conducted on these beams with simply sup-

Table 3
Summary of the test results.

Specimen PNAS (kN) PAS/NZS (kN) PExp (kN) d (mm) PExp/W (kNm/kg) Failure modes
Model-I 56.15 52.51 57.82 15.29 4.81 LB + WB + DB + BF
Model-II 78.01 19.99 6.5 LB + FB + WB + DB
Model-III 79.76 18.59 6.64 FlxrB
Model-IV 84.22 15.01 7.01 LB + BF

Please cite this article as: A. R. Dar, An experimental study on the flexural behavior of cold-formed steel composite beams, Materials Today: Proceedings,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.11.098
4 A.R. Dar / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
ported end conditions. The ultimate strengths, modes of failure,
load vs. displacement plots were obtained to study their flexural
behavior, in order to evaluate the structural efficiency of the differ-
ent packing materials. Lastly, the North American Specifications
and Australian Standard for CFS structures were used for determin-
ing the design strengths of the specimens for comparison sake.
Although the PVC packing had good lightweight features, but it
did not perform satisfactorily, as it could neither prevent the local
buckling instabilities in the compression regions nor the distor-
tional buckling ones. Both cardboard as well as timber packing’s
offered good resistance, particularly against the distortional buck-
ling of the CFS cross-sections. However, cardboard packing offered
better resistance against bearing failure at the loading points. Both
North American Specifications and Australian Standard for CFS
structures predicted the strengths of the various CFS composite
beams conservatively. A better hard and light-weight packing
material such as Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) can be employed
for improved performance of CFS composite beams. The thickness
of packing material can be optimized for better utility and
economy.
Declaration of interests
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
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