THE ACCURACY OF SOME CODES OF PRACTICE IN PREDICTING THE LOAD-CAPACITY OF COLD-FORMED COLUMNS

The accuracy of existing codes of practice for the design of cold-form ed steel sections, namely, from AISI [American Iron and Steel Institut e. The Specification for the Design of Cold-formed Steel Structural Me mbers (Aug. 1986)], BS [British Standards Institution. BS5950: Part 5- structural Use of Steelwork in Building. Code of Practice for Design o f Cold Formed Sections (1987).] and EUR [European Convention for Const ructional Steelwork, ECCS. European Recommendations for the Design of Light Gauge Steel Members. Design of Cold Formed Steel Sheeting and Se ctions (1987).] is examined Selected experimental results (ultimate lo ad capacity) on columns with different cross-sections were used to com pare with the predictions by the codes of practice, Results show that the accuracy of all the codes of practice examined varies from section to section. Some recommendations and proposed modifications to the co des were also made. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.