Recent developments in the design of cold-formed steel members and structures

Cold-formed steel members and structures are extremely widespread in use at the present time. The design analysis of such structures is often complex, as their behaviour can be influenced by effects, which arise due to the slenderness of members, walls and cross-sections. Prime among these effects are the various types of buckling which can occur, and which may interact with each other to promote failure at loads substantially less than those, which would be obtained in the absence of these effects. The complications induced by such effects must be taken into account in design, if the potential benefits offered by the use of such members are to be realised, and in recent design specifications this has been realised. In this paper the main types of cold-formed steel members are described, the particular characteristics affecting their design are discussed, as are the ways in which design specifications deal with these characteristics.