Bending and torsion of cold-formed channel beams

This paper reports the results of 34 bending and torsion tests on unbraced simply supported cold-formed steel channel beams loaded eccentrically at mi dspan. These results and those of 10 concentrically loaded beams ate compar ed with analytical predictions and with simple design approximations. The t ests show that the beam strengths decrease as the load eccentricity increas es and that the strength is higher when the load acts on the centroid side of the shear center than when it acts on the side away from the shear cente r. Good agreement is demonstrated between the test results and analytical p redictions of the strengths. An extended series of analytical predictions i s used to develop simple interaction equations that can be used in the desi gn of eccentrically loaded cold-formed channel beams.