A design rule for web crippling of cold-formed steel lipped channel beams based on nonlinear FEA

This paper presents the details of a research study conducted with the aim of developing an alternative design rule to predict the web crippling strength of cold-formed steel lipped channel beams. Current empirical web crippling design rules are perceived to be only accurate for the type of sections and the section dimensions that have been tested. A large number of experiments are often necessary to validate these design rules for a wider range of section types and dimensions, and these experiments are often expensive and impractical. Hence, a design rule which is based on a theoretical or numerical model has been attempted through this work.