Practical Design of Cold-Formed Steel Sections by the Direct Strength Method

Resumo

Cold-formed steel are among the most widely used in steel construction, being extensively employed in roofing and lightweight structures in general. Despite their popularity from a construction perspective, due to the existing manufacturing and utilization facilities, they prove to be quite complex from a design standpoint, as verifying these components involves extensive and complex calculation procedures due to the various global and local instability phenomena that may occur. Among the three design methods presented by the Brazilian standard NBR 7190, this study applies the Direct Strength Method in the development of a computational application that allows for the practical design of cold-formed steel subjected to oblique composite bending. This addresses the vast majority of calculation situations encountered in practice. The application has been tested in various design scenarios, and the results have been compared with those provided by other methods recommended by NBR 7190, showing a highly satisfactory performance.