Parametric Study and Proposed Design Equation for Cold-Formed Steel Channels with Slotted Webs Subjected to Web Crippling under Interior Two Flange Load Case

The parametric study was undertaken to investigate the web crippling capacities of cold-formed steel channels with staggered slotted perforations under interior two flanges (ITF) load case. The study was performed on finite element models developed in ANSYS and validated using experimental data.  The effects of cross-section size, perforation pattern and mechanical property of channels on the web crippling capacity were investigated on the models. Web slots reduced web crippling strength of the investigated channels by 80–95%. Design equations based on the reduction factor were developed for predicting the web crippling capacity of slotted channels and demonstrated a good agreement with the results of finite element analysis.