Cold-formed steel sections are subject to instability phenomena, either local or global, which can influence the load capacity of compressed elements. The use of longitudinal stiffeners can provide increasing load capacity and element efficiency. This paper presents a numerical investigation of cold formed steel sections with web intermediate stiffeners, subjected to axial compression. The sections considered in this study are the channel ones commonly used as columns in residential Steel Framing Systems. The study is based on finite element method analysis, and the critical loads and respective elastic buckling modes are obtained through linear analysis. Non-linear inelastic analyses are conducted to obtain column ultimate-load capacity and to study its post-buckling behavior. Different column lengths were adopted throughout the analyses, to evaluate their behavior under the different types of local instability.
Cold-formed Steel; intermediate stiffeners; columns; distortional buckling
