Studying The Behavior of Cold-Formed Steel Sections in Lightweight Buildings

— Over the last decade, the use of cold-formed steel (CFS) sections has increased significantly increasing in lightweight buildings and many other industrial constructions worldwide. The present research paper aims to investigate the distributed load capacity of CFS sections in lightweight buildings. Three CFS built-up sections were investigated for column and other three for girder in a frame of building study case. Channels, channels with lip, sigma section, hollow section, and/or plates were used to obtain column and girder profiles in frame. Self-tapping screws were applied to assemble the elements of each section. The finite element (FE) model was used to study the distributed load capacity of frames using ABAQUS program. A total of nine frames were tested till failure, and their behavior was studied. The FE model was validated using data from prior tests. Different characteristics affecting the distributed load capacity of CFS built-up sections were studied using the FE model, including column profile, girder profile, steel grade, steel thickness, longitudinal spacing between screws (fasteners), and cross- sectional area. the distributed load capacities obtained from FE models were compared to develop