Finite element modeling of cold-formed steel channels with solid and slotted webs in shear

• Finite element models of solid and slotted channels were created and validated.
• Effects of boundary conditions on elastic and ultimate shear strengths were studied.
• Realistic boundaries resulted in smaller strengths than test setup boundaries.
• Boundary conditions affected strengths of slotted channels more than solid channels.

This paper presents finite element models of cold-formed steel channels with solid and slotted webs subjected to shear. The models were created in ANSYS and validated against test data. The effects of boundary conditions on the elastic shear buckling load and the ultimate shear strength were numerically investigated on the models with the test setup and realistic boundary conditions. The obtained results showed that the elastic shear buckling loads and the ultimate shear strengths of the slotted channels were affected considerably more by the boundary conditions when compared with the solid channels. Therefore, the actual boundary conditions should be considered in further parametric studies of the slotted channels.

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