FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF COLD FORMED STEEL PURLIN BOLTED CONNECTIONS

Abstract: Cold formed steel sections are widely used as purlins in industrial buildings. Plain C, Z and sigma sections are most common cold-formed steel purlins in use for roof systems throughout the world. In a pre engineered building of larger bay span two purlins are connected in such a way that it acts as a continuous member. The purlins are connected either by overlapping them or by bolting a short sleeve member that holds and connects the purlins. This paper aims in determining the capacities of bolted overlapped and sleeved connections for z and sigma section having same depth and thickness. The stability, load bearing capacity and failure modes for the four different connections are found by finite element. The finite element analysis is done by ABAQUS/CAE. Results are compared to find which connection case is more effective.

Keywords: cold formed steel, Z and sigma purlins, bolted connections, load carrying capacity.