Web crippling tests on cold-formed high strength steel channel sections having different stiffened flanges and stiffened web

This paper reports 59 tests on cold-formed high strength steel channel sections with different stiffened flanges and stiffened web. The test specimens were brake-pressed from high strength zinc-coated grades G450, G500 and G550 structural steel sheets. The test program consisted of 6 series of channel sections having different stiffened flanges, web slenderness, material strengths and loading conditions. The loading conditions were End-Two-Flange (ETF), and Interior-Two-Flange (ITF) loadings as specified in the North American Specification for cold-formed steel structures. The web crippling test strengths and load–displacement relationships of the channel section specimens were obtained from the tests. The channel sections having stiffened flanges as well as the channel sections having stiffened web enhanced the web crippling strengths of the specimens, especially for those specimens loaded under ETF loading condition. The web crippling test strengths were also compared with the design strengths calculated using the current North American Specification and European Code for cold-formed steel structures. In addition, reliability analysis was performed to assess the reliability of the design rules. Generally, it is found that the predictions obtained from the North American Specification are unconservative and unreliable for the cold-formed high strength steel channel section specimens, except for the specimens with unstiffened flanges under ITF loading condition, while the European Code was unreliable but conservative in predicting the web crippling strengths, except for the specimens with unstiffened flanges under ETF loading condition.