Cold Form Steel

Constructions Material Technology

That are cold formed

steel structures!!!

So what is cold formed steel ?

Cold-formed steel (CFS) is the common term for
products made by rolling or pressing thin gauges of
sheet steel into goods.
Cold-formed steel goods are created by the
working of sheet steel using stamping, rolling, or
presses to deform the sheet into a usable product.

 Cold-formed steel products are just what the name

connotes: products that are made by bending a flat
sheet of steel at room temperature into a shape
that will support more load than the flat sheet
itself.

The history
The use of cold-formed steel members in building
construction began in the 1850s in both the United
States and Great Britain.
In the 1920s and 1930s, acceptance of cold-formed
steel as a construction material was still limited
because there was no adequate design standard and
limited information on material use in building codes.
One of the first documented uses of cold-formed steel
as a building material is the Virginia Baptist Hospital,
constructed around 1925 in Lynchburg, Virginia.

The history (continued)

The walls were load bearing masonry, but the floor
system was framed with double back-to-back coldformed steel lipped channels.
According to Chuck Greene, P.E of Nolen Frisa
Associates, the joists were adequate to carry the
initial loads and spans, based on current analysis
techniques.
Greene engineered a recent renovation to the
structure and said that for the most part, the joists
are still performing well.

The history (continued)

A site observation during this renovation confirmed
that "these joists from the 'roaring twenties' are
still supporting loads, over 80 years later!" In the
1940s, Lustron Homes built and sold almost 2500
steel-framed homes, with the framing, finishes,
cabinets and furniture made from cold-formed
steel.

The process of making

The benefit
As compared with thicker hot-rolled shapes, coldformed light members can be
manufactured for relatively light loads and/or short spans.
Unusual sectional configurations can be produced economically by cold-forming
operations, and consequently favorable strength-to-weight ratios can be obtained.
Nestable sections can be produced, allowing for compact packaging and shipping.
Load-carrying panels and decks can provide useful surfaces for floor, roof, and wall
construction, and in other cases they can also provide enclosed cells for electrical and
other conduits.
Load-carrying panels and decks not only withstand loads normal to their surfaces, but
they can also act as shear diaphragms to resist force in their own planes if they are
adequately interconnected to each other and to supporting members.

The benefit (continued )

Compared with other materials such as timber and concrete, the
following qualities can be realized for coldformed steel structural
members
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.

Lightness
High strength and stiffness
Ease of prefabrication and mass production
Fast and easy erection and installation
Substantial elimination of delays due to weather
More accurate detailing
Non-shrinking and non-creeping at ambient temperatures
Formwork unneeded
Termite proof and rot proof
Uniform quality
Economy in transportation and handling
Non-combustibility
Recyclable material

Typical stressstrain properties

A main property of steel, which is used to describe its behavior, is the stressstrain
graph. The stressstrain graphs of cold-formed steel sheet mainly fall into two
categories. They are sharp yielding and gradual yielding type illustrated below in Fig.1
and Fig.2, respectively.

These two stressstrain curves are typical for cold-formed steel sheet during tension test.
The second graph is the representation of the steel sheet that has undergone the coldreducing (hard rolling) during manufacturing process, therefore it does not exhibit a yield
point with a yield plateau. The initial slope of the curve may be lowered as a result of the
prework. Unlike Fig.1, the stressstrain relationship in Fig.2 represents the behavior of
annealed steel sheet. For this type of steel, the yield point is defined by the level at which
the stressstrain curve becomes horizontal.
Cold forming has the effect of increasing the yield strength of steel, the increase being the
consequence of cold working well into the strain-hardening range. This increase is in the
zones where the material is deformed by bending or working. The yield stress can be
assumed to have been increased by 15% or more for design purposes. The yield stress
value of cold-formed steel is usually between 33ksi and 80ksi. The measured values of
Modulus of Elasticity based on the standard methods usually range from 29,000 to 30,000
ksi (200 to 207 GPa). A value of 29,500 ksi (203 GPa) is recommended by AISI in its
specification for design purposes. The ultimate tensile strength of steel sheets in the
sections has little direct relationship to the design of those members. The load-carrying
capacities of cold-formed steel flexural and compression members are usually limited by
yield point or buckling stresses that are less than the yield point of steel, particularly for
those compression elements having relatively large flat-width ratios and for compression
members having relatively large slenderness ratios. Studies indicate that the effects of
cold work on formed steel members depend largely upon the spread between the tensile
and the yield strength of the virgin material.

Hot-rolled versus cold-rolled steel and the influence of annealing

Hot rolled

Cold rolled

Yielding strength

The material is not deformed; there is no initial

The yield value is increased by 15%30% due
strain in the material, hence yielding starts at actual
to prework (initial deformation).
yield value as the original material.

Modulus of elasticity

29,000 ksi

29,500 ksi

Unit weight

Unit weight is comparatively huge.

It is much smaller.

Ductility

More ductile in nature.

Less ductile.

Design

Most of the time, we consider only the global

buckling of the member.

Local buckling, Distortional Buckling, Global

Buckling have to be considered.

Main uses

Load bearing structures, usually heavy load bearing

structures and where ductility is more important (
Example Seismic prone areas)

Application in many variety of loading cases.

This includes building frames, automobile,
aircraft, home appliances, etc. Use limited in
cases where high ductility requirements.

Flexibility of shapes

Standard shapes are followed. High value of unit

weight limits the flexibility of manufacturing wide
variety of shapes.

Any desired shape can be molded out of the

sheets. The light weight enhances its variety
of usage.

Economy

High Unit weight increases the overall cost

material, lifting, transporting, etc. It is difficult to
work with (e.g. connection).

Low unit weight reduces the cost

comparatively. Ease of construction (e.g.
connection).

In the advanced stages at present.

More possibilities as the concept is relatively

new and material finds wide variety of
applications.

Material properties

Research possibilities

Cold Formed Steel Test Method

Mechanical Testing of Steel Products (ASTM A 370)
Standard Specification for Steel, Sheet, Carbon, and
High-Strength, Low-Alloy, Hot-Rolled and ColdRolled, General Requirements (ASTM A 568)
Standard Specification for Steel Sheet, Carbon,
Metallic- and Nonmetallic-Coated for Cold-Formed
Framing Members (ASTM A 1003)