EUROSTEEL 2014, September 10-12, 2014, Naples, Italy

CFRP STRENGTHENED COLD-FORMED STAINLESS STEEL SECTIONS

Web Crippling Tests under ETF Loading Condition

Feng Zhou, Pei Huang, Huailin Peng

Tongji University, Department of Building Engineering, Shanghai, China
zhoufeng@tongji.edu.cn, 000peihuang@tongji.edu.cn, huailin_peng@SHIMAOGROUP.com

INTRODUCTION
Cold-formed stainless steel sections often experience web crippling failure due to high local
intensity of concentrated loads or reactions. For square and rectangular hollow section members, it
is often difficult to provide transverse stiffeners at loading points, especially when the stiffeners are
located away from the ends of the members. Hence, web crippling strength enhancement using
Carbon Fibre-Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) in localized region can be considered as an attractive
solution. In the literature, the web crippling behaviour of cold-formed stainless steel sections has
been researched [1-4]. However, these investigations did not consider any strengthening in the web
of the sections.
This paper presents a series of web crippling tests of cold-formed austenitic stainless steel tubular
sections strengthened with CFRP sheets under End-Two-Flange (ETF) loading condition. The
typical load-web deformation behaviour, failure loads, failure modes and strength enhancement due
to CFRP strengthening in the web of the cold-formed stainless steel tubular sections are reported.
The effects of CFRP layout, bearing length and web slenderness on the strength enhancement have
also been discussed based on the experimental investigation.

1 MATERIAL PROPERTIES
1.1 Stainless steel tubes
Square and rectangular hollow sections fabricated by cold-rolling from normal strength material of
austenitic stainless steel type 304 have been considered in this study. Tensile coupon tests were
carried out to determine the material properties of the cold-formed austenitic stainless steel tubular
sections. The tensile coupons were extracted from the centre of the web plate in the longitudinal
direction of the untested specimens. The tensile coupon specimens were prepared and tested
according to the American Society for Testing and Materials Standard [5] for the tensile testing of
metals using 12.5 mm wide coupons of gauge length 50 mm. The coupons were tested in a MTS
displacement controlled testing machine. A data acquisition system was used to record the load and
strain at regular intervals during the tests. The material properties obtained from the tensile coupon
tests are summarized in Table 1, which includes the static 0.2% tensile proof stress (0.2), static
tensile strength (u), tangent modulus (E0.2) and elongation after fracture (f) based on a gauge
length of 50 mm.
Table 1. Measured material properties of cold-formed stainless steel tubular sections
Test specimen f
0.2 (MPa) u (MPa) E0.2 (MPa)
bfdt(mm) (%)
1201202.7 393 734 25281 17.3
1201203.6 445 760 23511 16.8
80803.6 448 758 23107 17.2
601201.8 388 761 24848 19.2
601202.7 420 751 23900 17.1

1.2 CFRP and adhesive

The CFRP sheet used in this study is HITEX-C300 which has a mass area ratio of 300 g/m2 and
nominal thickness of 0.167mm. The specified material properties of CFRP were provided by the
supplier, with the tensile strength u=3492.5MPa, and the initial Youngs modulus E0=2.6105MPa.
The adhesive adopted is Lica-100 A/B. The tensile strength u =48.4MPa, the initial Youngs
modulus E0=3443MPa, the ultimate tensile strain f =1.6%, and the shear strength is 19.6MPa,
which were provided by the material supplier.

2 TEST PROGRAM
2.1 Test specimens
In this study, a total of 29 web crippling tests were conducted on cold-formed stainless steel tubular
sections strengthened with CFRP sheets. The test specimens were fabricated by cold-rolling from
normal strength material of austenitic stainless steel type 304. The test specimens were subjected to
ETF loading condition. The tests were performed on five different hollow section sizes as shown in
Table 1. The measured web slenderness values h/t of the tubular sections ranged from 18.70 to
68.41. The specimen lengths (L) were determined according to the American Specification [6] and
the Australian/New Zealand Standard [7]. Generally, the clear distance from the edge of the bearing
plate to the end of the member was set to be 1.5d. The measured dimensions of the test specimens
are shown in Table 2, using the nomenclature defined in Fig. 1. a). The specimens without
strengthening of CRFP were also tested for reference purpose.

Cold-formed Stainless Steel

Loading ram
Tubular Section Half round
CFRP Junction
Sheets Transducer
plate
Load transfer
t

plate Test specimen

CFRP sheets
Failure
Load transfer
h
d

plate
re ri
Junction
bf Half round plate
a) Foundation plate b)

Fig. 1. a)Definition of symbols; b) Photograph of test setup of ETF loading condition

2.2 Specimens labelling

The test specimens were labelled such that the type of loading condition, nominal dimensions of the
specimen, bearing length, type and number of CFRP layers can be identified, as shown in Table 2.
For example, the label ETF601201.8N60-C defines the following specimen: The first three
letters indicate the loading condition of ETF. The following symbols are the nominal dimensions of
the specimen in mm, where 601201.8 (bfdt) means the flange width=60 mm, web depth=120
mm and thickness=1.8 mm. The following three letters N60 indicate the bearing length of 60mm.
The following letter indicates whether CFRP was used or not, where C means CFRP was used,
and the reference test specimen without CFRP is represented as B. The CFRP strengthened width
for all specimens was the same length as the bearing length N, except additional following symbols
(N+d) were used to indicate its CFRP strengthened width. Two layers of CFRP were used for all
specimens except that additional following symbols (1L) or (3L) were used to indicate the layer
number of CFRP strengthened. If a test was repeated, then the letter -R indicates the repeated test.
2.3 Specimen preparation
In this study, the first step in specimen preparation was grinding the surface of the specimens with
sand paper to remove the galvanized and other impurities. And then the outer surfaces of the cold-
formed stainless steel tubular sections as well as the CFRP were cleaned with acetone. The adhesive
was then applied uniformly on the CFRP sheets and then attached onto the cold-formed stainless
 Table 2. Measured specimen dimensions and test results of CFRP strengthened cold-formed stainless steel tubular
sections subjected to ETF loading condition
Flange Web Thickness Web Length Test PExp ,C
Specimen bf d t slenderness L PExp PExp , B
(mm) (mm) (mm) h/t (mm) (kN)
ETF1201202.7N60-B 120.2 120.4 2.838 37.84 239.9 38.14 100.0%
ETF1201202.7N60-B-R 120.3 120.5 2.843 37.81 238.5 38.25 100.0%
ETF1201202.7N60-C 120.2 120.0 2.845 37.61 240.6 39.11 102.5%
ETF1201202.7N120-B 120.2 120.4 2.810 38.22 300.1 53.27 100.0%
ETF1201202.7N120-C 120.3 120.4 2.840 37.82 300.1 55.26 103.7%
ETF1201203.6N60-B 120.5 120.3 3.620 28.81 239.8 64.19 100.0%
ETF1201203.6N60-C 120.6 120.3 3.625 28.77 239.8 65.43 101.9%
ETF1201203.6N120-B 120.6 120.2 3.643 28.60 300.1 92.90 100.0%
ETF1201203.6N120-C 120.0 120.0 3.620 28.73 300.1 94.51 101.7%
ETF80803.6N30-B 79.9 79.8 3.658 18.81 150.5 67.36 100.0%
ETF80803.6N30-C 80.0 79.8 3.680 18.70 150.1 69.82 103.7%
ETF80803.6N60-B 80.0 79.7 3.660 18.77 180.8 95.51 100.0%
ETF80803.6N60-C 80.0 79.8 3.635 18.93 180.6 97.42 102.0%
ETF601201.8N30-B 60.2 120.2 1.637 67.93 210.3 12.26 100.0%
ETF601201.8N30-C 60.3 120.1 1.624 68.41 210.8 13.00 106.0%
ETF601201.8N60-B 59.9 120.4 1.653 67.39 240.0 14.69 100.0%
ETF601201.8N60-C 60.7 120.0 1.632 68.01 240.2 16.07 109.4%
ETF601201.8N60-C-R 60.6 120.0 1.628 68.18 240.4 16.13 109.8%
ETF601201.8N60-C(N+d) 60.2 120.2 1.708 65.11 240.1 18.21 124.0%
ETF601201.8N60-C(1L) 60.2 120.1 1.642 67.66 240.8 16.00 108.9%
ETF601201.8N60-C(3L) 60.3 120.1 1.685 65.93 240.8 18.34 124.8%
ETF601201.8N120-B 60.8 120.1 1.646 67.50 300.2 20.53 100.0%
ETF601201.8N120-C 60.7 120.2 1.728 64.35 299.7 29.09 141.7%
ETF601202.7N30-B 60.4 120.1 2.743 38.68 210.0 29.35 100.0%
ETF601202.7N30-C 60.4 120.0 2.728 38.86 209.6 29.97 102.1%
ETF601202.7N60-B 60.5 120.5 2.638 40.37 240.1 32.72 100.0%
ETF601202.7N60-C 60.7 120.5 2.673 39.84 240.0 38.33 117.1%
ETF601202.7N120-B 60.6 120.3 2.658 39.99 300.0 48.65 100.0%
ETF601202.7N120-C 60.7 120.5 2.628 40.53 300.0 52.07 107.0%

steel surfaces. The excess adhesive and air were removed using a ribbed roller that applied on the
CFRP sheets with a small amount of force. The fibre direction was along the transverse direction of
the web. The thickness of the adhesive layer was maintained uniform to be approximately 1.0 mm.
The test specimens were tested after 7 days of curing at room temperature.
2.4 Bearing plates and CFRP widths
The load was applied through bearing plates. The bearing plates were fabricated using high strength
steel of yield stress approximately 800MPa. All bearing plates had the thickness of 50 mm and the
length of 200mm. The bearing plates acted across the full flange widths of the sections, excluding
the rounded corner. The bearing length (N) was chosen to be the full-flange and half-flange widths
of the section. The width of CFRP sheet for strengthening is identical to the bearing length N. As
mentioned before, additional CFRP width of N+d was also used to study the effects of CFRP width
on CFRP strengthening against web crippling. The flanges of the specimens were not fastened to
the bearing plates during the tests.
2.5 Web crippling tests
The web crippling tests were carried out under the ETF loading condition specified in the American
Specification [6] and Australian/New Zealand Standard [7]. Fig. 1. b) shows the photograph of the
test setup. Two identical bearing plates with half round of the same width were positioned at the end
of the specimens. Hinge supports were simulated by two half rounds. The specimen was seated
between the two bearing plates during the test. A servo-controlled hydraulic testing machine was
used to apply a concentrated compressive force to the test specimen. Displacement control was used
to drive the hydraulic actuator at a constant speed. The web deformations of the specimens were
obtained by the average readings of the three transducers measured between the two bearing plates.
 (a) (b) (c)

Fig. 2. Failure modes of CFRP strengthened cold-formed stainless steel specimens:

(a) Adhesion failure; (b) Combination of adhesion and cohesion; (c) Tear of CFRP sheets

20 20

16 16

Load(kN)
Load(kN)

12 12

8 ETF601201.8N60-B 8 ETF601201.8N60-B
ETF601201.8N60-C ETF601201.8N60-C(3L)
ETF601201.8N60-C-R ETF601201.8N60-C(2L)
4 4 ETF601201.8N60-C(1L)
ETF601201.8N60-C(N+d)

0 0
0 2 4 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Web deformation(mm) a) Web deformation(mm) b)
Fig. 3. a) Comparison of CFRP length effect on load-web deformation behaviour for specimen ETF601201.8N60;
b) Comparison of CFRP layer effect on load-web deformation behaviour for specimen ETF601201.8N60

30 60

25 50

20 40
Load(kN)
Load(kN)

15 30

20 ETF601202.7N60-C
10 ETF601201.8N60-C ETF601202.7N60-B
ETF601201.8N60-B ETF601202.7N120-C
5 ETF601201.8N120-C 10 ETF601202.7N120-B
ETF601201.8N120-B
0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5
Web deformation(mm) a) Web deformation(mm) b)
Fig. 4. a) Load-web deformation behaviour of specimens with large web slenderness;
b) Load-web deformation behaviour of specimens with medium web slenderness

3 TEST RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

3.1 Failure modes and test results
In this study, three main failure modes, namely adhesion failure, combination of adhesion and
cohesion failure and tear of CFRP sheets were observed as shown in Fig. 2. The adhesion failure
was found at physical interface between the adhesive and the adherents. It depends on the surface
characteristics of adherent such as the roughness and other factors. The cohesion failure is fully
control by the adhesive properties. As the CFRP sheets used were unidirectional fabrics, the tear of
CFRP sheets were also observed.
Almost of the CFRP strengthened specimens failed due to debonding. Generally, debonding
initiated from the end of the CFRP sheet that experienced high interfacial stresses developed in the
region. The debonding was propagated gradually towards the mid-height of the webs. The CFRP
sheet strengthened webs were not able to resist the applied load when the propagation of the cracks
had reached a certain limit [8]. The load-web deformation behaviour of CFRP strengthened cold-
formed stainless steel specimens are shown in Figs. 3-5. It is evident from Figs. 3-4 that the initial
cracking propagated to a certain limit then the CFRP suddenly debonded and the load dropped
immediately. While in Fig. 5. a), neither strength enhancement is significant, nor the load dropped
immediately. The experimental ultimate web crippling loads per web for ETF loading condition are
presented in Table 2.
3.2 Influence of CFRP layouts
A series of tests was conducted on cold-formed stainless steel specimens ETF601201.8N60 to
investigate the effects of different widths of CFRP sheets on the strength enhancement. Two kinds
of CFRP strengthened widths of N and N+d were considered, where N was the bearing length and d
was the overall depth of the section. The load-web deformation curves are plotted in Fig. 3. a) for
ETF601201.8N60. It is evident from Fig. 3. a) that the initial cracking propagated to a certain
limit then the CFRP suddenly debonded and the load dropped immediately. The web crippling
capacity of the CFRP strengthened cold-formed stainless steel tubular sections increased evidently
by increasing the width of the CFRP sheet for ETF601201.8N60 which has a large slenderness
ratio. The web crippling strengths increased by 9.8% for ETF601201.8N60-C. When the CFRP
width increases from N to N +d, the web crippling strengths increased up to 24.0%, when compared
to the reference test.
Strengthening with two layers of CFRP is a relatively effective solution and can be easily achieved
[9]. Hence, in this study mainly two layers of CFRP were used to strengthen the cold-formed
stainless steel tubular sections. However, one and three layers of CFRP were also considered to
investigate the effect of CFRP layer number on web crippling strength enhancement. The web
crippling capacity increased by 8.9%, 9.4% and 24.8% for one, two and three CFRP layers of
specimen ETF601201.8N60, respectively, as shown in Table 2 and Fig. 4. b). Therefore, the web
crippling strength enhancement increases evidently as the layer number of CFRP increases form one
to three.
3.3 Influence of bearing length
The effect of bearing length on CFRP strengthening against web crippling was investigated in this
study. As mentioned before, each section has two kinds of bearing length, namely 0.5bf and bf. The
load-web deformation curves are plotted for sections RHS601201.8, RHS601202.7 and
SHS80803.6 under ETF loading condition in Fig. 4 and Fig. 5. a), respectively. It is shown that
CFRP can generally provide more strength enhancements for sections with bearing length of bf than
for sections with bearing length of 0.5bf.
120 1.4

100
1.3 Results of this paper.
80 Results of Islam, S.[9].
Load(kN)

PExp,C/PExp,B

60 1.2

40 ETF80803.6N30-C
ETF80803.6N30-B 1.1
ETF80803.6N60-C
20
ETF80803.6N60-B

0 1.0
10 20 30 40 50 60 70
0 1 2 3 4 5
Web deformation(mm) a) Web slenderness (h/t) b)
Fig. 5. a) Load-web deformation behaviour of specimens with small web slenderness;
b) Comparison of web slenderness effect on strength enhancement for ETF loading condition

3.4 Influence of web slenderness

The effect of web slenderness on CFRP strengthening against web crippling was also considered in
this study. It is also shown from Figs. 4-5 that CFRP sheets provide more effective web crippling
strength enhancement for slender sections. This is due to the cold-formed stainless steel specimens
with compact web failed by buckling in the inelastic range, while the cold-formed stainless steel
specimens with slender web failed in the elastic range. The web crippling strengths of CFRP
strengthened cold-formed stainless steel tubular sections were increased by 41.7% for the
specimens with large value of web slenderness ratio under ETF loading condition.

4 CONCLUSIONS
A test program on CFRP strengthened cold-formed stainless steel tubular sections under ETF
loading condition has been presented. The specimens with web slenderness ranging from 18.70 to
68.41 have been considered. The web crippling tests were performed under ETF loading condition.
The effects of CFRP layout, bearing length and web slenderness on the strength enhancement have
been investigated. The ultimate loads, failure modes and the typical load-web deformation curves of
the test specimens have been reported.
It is shown that the test specimens were mainly failed in three failure modes, namely the adhesion,
combination of adhesion and cohesion as well as tear of CFRP sheets. It is also shown that the
increase of CFRP strengthened width can provide some improvements on strengthening of the cold-
formed stainless steel tubular sections for ETF loading condition. The web crippling strength
enhancement increases evidently as the layer number of CFRP increases. The CFRP sheets provide
more strength enhancements for sections with bearing length of bf than for sections with bearing
length of 0.5bf. The CFRP sheets provide more web crippling strength enhancement for slender
sections. The web crippling strengths of CFRP strengthened cold-formed stainless steel tubular
sections were increased by 41.7% for the specimens with large value of web slenderness ratio under
ETF loading condition.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The research work described in this paper was supported by the Chinese National Natural Science
Foundation (Project No. 51108337) and Shanghai Municipal Natural Science Foundation (Project
No. 11ZR1439400).

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