Web crippling failure of cold-formed steel deckings

This paper presents an experimental and numerical investigation on web crippling failure of two common cold-formed steel deckings: re-entrant and trapezoidal type deckings. After careful execution of web crippling tests, an advanced three-dimensional finite element models with material, geometry and boundary non-linearity are established to simulate the web crippling behaviour of these two deckings. Comparison on both the web crippling resistances and the deformed shapes at failure between the numerical and the test results from tests is found to be highly satisfactorily. Moreover, an extensive parametric study is performed to generate design data for web crippling resistances in both reentrant and trapezoidal deckings with different steel grades and thicknesses under a practical range of bearing lengths. It is shown that the proposed finite element models are effective to predict the web crippling resistances of cold-formed steel deckings. Furthermore, a simple and yet effective design rule is also proposed which employs directly the numerical results obtained from the parametric study. Further investigation will be carried out to develop the general applicability of the proposed models to cover other deckings with similar configurations and cross-section dimensions.