Flexural behaviour and strength of cold-formed steel L-headers

Cold-formed steel headers are structural components used over wall openings in cold-formed steel residential and light commercial construction. Recently, there has been an increased interest in cold-formed L-headers among homebuilders primarily due to their ease of installation and low material cost. The findings from an extensive laboratory testing program, of full-scale single and double cold-formed steel L-headers are presented in this paper. The objective of the research was to investigate the flexural behaviour and strength of L-headers under both gravity and uplift loads. Based on the results improved ultimate strength design expressions and new deflection expressions for a wide range of L-header assemblies have been proposed.