Comparative analysis of composite slab steel formwork design by Direct Strength and Effective Width Methods
Palavras-chave:
Steel formworks, Design Methods, Direct Strength Method, Effective Width Method, Elastic buckling analysisResumo
Among the different methods used to analyze the behavior of a cold-formed profile section subjected to
bending moment, the Direct Strength Method (DSM) and the Effective Width Method (EWM) have become
popular in the design of these structures. Although recently both methods have been approached in the area of
optimization for different geometries and applications and, also, in the comparison with experimental results, there
is a lack of studies that contemplate the design of composite slab formwork considering the construction phase in
which the resistant section is that of profiled steel sheet. Thus, this article aims to compare the Direct Strength and
Effective Width methods when used to dimension steel formwork sections for composite slabs. In the application
of the DSM, to obtain the critical moments through the analysis of elastic stability, the computational program
CUFSM was used, whose methodology used is the finite strip method (FSM). The design process was carried out
on the MATLAB® computational platform and the analysis started from 4 different geometries, produced for
commercialization in the Brazilian market. EWM has proven to be a more conservative approach for geometries
with stiffeners and DSM for geometries without stiffeners.
