Elastic Buckling of Cold Formed Steel Beams with Unstiffened Holes

Critical elastic buckling analyses for cold-formed steel beams with unstiffened holes are performed in this assignment. The beam dimensions, boundary and loading conditions for the conducted simulations are based on experiments conducted by A. Schudlich [14]. Critical buckling moments for local, distortional and global buckling are calculated on the one hand by using the finite element method and on the other hand by employing the simplified methods for deriving critical elastic buckling parameters for coldformed steel provided by the American Iron and Steel Institute’s Direct Strength Method (DSM) [1]. The results of both analyses have been compared in order to validate the DSM simplified methods. Also beams without holes are considered in this assignment as well as all beams with holes are also simulated without holes included. With comparing the results of members without holes to those members with holes, the influence of unstiffened holes can be obtained.