Parametric study with FE model of cold-formed plain lipped C-section in shear, and combined bending and shear

The study focuses on the finite element (FE) modelling of cold formed plain lipped C-section in shear, and combined bending and shear, which was developed using ANSYS. Hence, a parametric study on plain C-section was conducted to investigate the applicability of the direct strength method (DSM). In addition, DSM capacity curves were constructed to find out the limitations of DSM. It is found that the DSM equations for nominal shear capacity with tension field action (TFA) gives the capacity that is acceptable when full tension field action is developed while the nominal DSM moment capacity at local buckling outlines conservative results. However, the study also reveals that the DSM nominal shear capacity without tension field action provides lower capacity than the real peak capacity and therefore, it concludes that this method is more conservative