Liping Wang

Bio: Liping Wang is an academic researcher from Central South University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Cold-formed steel & Buckling. The author has an hindex of 11, co-authored 24 publications receiving 355 citations. Previous affiliations of Liping Wang include University of Hong Kong.

Behavior of Cold-Formed Steel Built-Up Sections with Intermediate Stiffeners under Bending. I: Tests and Numerical Validation

Abstract: An experimental investigation of simply supported built-up section beams with different sectional configurations has been conducted under both four-point bending and three-point bending. Intermediate stiffeners were employed to the webs of built-up sections to improve the buckling strength that is susceptible to local buckling and/or distortional buckling. In this study, the built-up sections were assembled by self-tapping screws from two channels with web stiffeners, which were brake-pressed from high-strength, zinc-coated grades G500 and G550 structural steel sheets with nominal 0.2% proof stresses of 500 and 550 MPa, respectively. The screws were located either at the flanges or webs, and the built-up sections include both open sections and closed sections. The moment capacities and observed failure modes of the beam tests are presented, and no failure was found in the screws. The local and distortional buckling behavior of the built-up section beam specimens were found to be different from the...

Design of cold-formed steel channels with stiffened webs subjected to bending

Abstract: The objectives of this study are to investigate the structural behaviour and evaluate the appropriateness of the current direct strength method on the design of cold-formed steel stiffened cross-sections subjected to bending. The stiffeners were employed to the web of plain channel and lipped channel sections to improve the flexural strength of cold-formed steel sections that are prone to local buckling and distortional buckling. An experimental investigation of simply supported beams with different stiffened channel sections has been conducted. The moment capacities and observed failure modes at ultimate loads were reported. A nonlinear finite element model was developed and verified against the test results in terms of strengths, failure modes and moment–curvature curves. The calibrated model was then adopted for an extensive parametric study to investigate the moment capacities and buckling modes of cold-formed steel beams with various geometries of stiffened sections. The strengths and failure modes of specimens obtained from experimental and numerical results were compared with design strengths predicted using the direct strength method specified in the North American Specification for cold-formed steel structures. The comparison shows that the design strengths predicted by the current direct strength method (DSM) are conservative for both local buckling and distortional buckling in this study. Hence, the DSM is modified to cover the new stiffened channel sections investigated in this study. A reliability analysis was also performed to assess the current and modified DSM.

Behaviour and design of cold-formed steel built-up section beams with different screw arrangements

Abstract: An experimental and numerical investigation of cold-formed steel built-up beams with different screw arrangements is presented in this paper. A total of 35 beams were tested under four-point bending with different screw arrangements in the moment span. The built-up sections were assembled using self-tapping screws from either two lipped channels connected back-to-back at the web to form an open section or two plain channels connected face-to-face at the flanges to form a closed section. Finite element (FE) models have been developed and validated against the test results for the built-up open section beams and built-up closed section beams, respectively. It is shown that the FE models can accurately predict the behaviour of cold-formed steel built-up beams with different screw arrangements. A parametric study on built-up beams with larger span and various screw spacing was further carried out using the verified FE models. The test and numerical results were compared with the design strengths predicted by the direct strength method (DSM) for cold-formed steel structures, with contingent considerations of the screws when determining the elastic buckling moments in the finite strip analysis. A reliability analysis was performed to evaluate the reliability of the current DSM equations. It is shown that the current DSM equations can predict the design strengths of built-up open section beams well in this study, with the assumption that the strength of the built-up section is the sum of two component profiles. However, the design equations for local buckling strength are generally conservative for the built-up closed section beams failed by local buckling. Meanwhile, the design equations for lateral-torsional buckling (LTB) strength cannot be directly used for the built-up closed section beams with relatively large screw spacing that failed by LTB with cross section distortion or separation of two component channels. It should be noted that LTB mode with cross section distortion was found in built-up closed section beams with large screw spacing. A modified design rule based on DSM is then proposed, which is shown to improve the accuracy of the predicted strengths. Moreover, the maximum longitudinal screw spacing for built-up closed section beams was also recommended for design practice.

Behavior of Cold-Formed Steel Built-Up Sections with Intermediate Stiffeners under Bending. II: Parametric Study and Design

Abstract: Built-up sections were used in a wide range of constructional steel applications. The investigation aims to develop suitable design rules for cold-formed steel doubly symmetric built-up open and closed sections with intermediate stiffeners under bending in this study. These built-up sections have a sufficient number of connections either at the flanges or webs, depending on the sectional configurations. Followed with the experimental investigation and finite-element validation in the first part of this study, a numerical parametric study including a total of 113 different built-up section beams was conducted. The key parameters including the sectional shapes and slenderness as well as the different failure modes and structural behavior were examined. The experimental data, together with the numerical results were compared with the predicted strengths using the current direct strength method (DSM) in the North American Specification. The determination of elastic buckling stresses corresponding to d...

Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures

Abstract: Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures provides requirements for general structural design and includes means for determining dead, live, soil, flood, wind, snow, rain, atmospheric ice, and earthquake loads, as well as their combinations, which are suitable for inclusion in building codes and other documents. This Standard, a revision of ASCE/SEI 7-05, offers a complete update and reorganization of the wind load provisions, expanding them from one chapter into six. The Standard contains new ultimate event wind maps with corresponding reductions in load factors, so that the loads are not affected, and updates the seismic loads with new risk-targeted seismic maps. The snow, live, and atmospheric icing provisions are updated as well. In addition, the Standard includes a detailed Commentary with explanatory and supplementary information designed to assist building code committees and regulatory authorities. Standard ASCE/SEI 7 is an integral part of building codes in the United States. Many of the load provisions are substantially adopted by reference in the International Building Code and the NFPA 5000 Building Construction and Safety Code. Structural engineers, architects, and those engaged in preparing and administering local building codes will find this Standard an essential reference in their practice. Note: New orders are fulfilled from the second printing, which incorporates the errata to the first printing.

Experimental investigation and a novel direct strength method for cold-formed built-up I-section columns

Abstract: This paper aims at investigating the structural response and predicting the ultimate strength of the cold-formed built-up I-section columns affected by local, distortional, global and in particular by the local-distortional (LD) interactive and local-distortional-global (LDG) interactive buckling modes. For this purpose, a total of 18 single C-section columns and 18 built-up I-section columns were tested under uniaxial compression load, respectively. The cross-sectional dimension, the thickness and the length of the tested members were varied in the test so as to cover a wide range of local, distortional and overall slenderness. It was shown in the test that noticeable LD interaction was observed for a built-up column with short length as well as LDG interaction for a built-up column with intermediate length. Due to the clear evidence obtained in the test that LD and LDG interactions cause substantial ultimate strength erosion in cold-formed built-up I-section column, a novel direct strength based method was proposed in this paper to quantify such an erosion effect. The validity of the proposed method was then verified by comparing the results obtained from the proposed method with the test results in this paper as well as several other test results in the literature. The comparison results proved that the proposed method can be used successfully in estimating the ultimate strength of cold-formed built-up I-section column affected by pure buckling mode as well as interactive buckling mode.

Behavior of Cold-Formed Steel Built-Up Sections with Intermediate Stiffeners under Bending. I: Tests and Numerical Validation

Abstract: An experimental investigation of simply supported built-up section beams with different sectional configurations has been conducted under both four-point bending and three-point bending. Intermediate stiffeners were employed to the webs of built-up sections to improve the buckling strength that is susceptible to local buckling and/or distortional buckling. In this study, the built-up sections were assembled by self-tapping screws from two channels with web stiffeners, which were brake-pressed from high-strength, zinc-coated grades G500 and G550 structural steel sheets with nominal 0.2% proof stresses of 500 and 550 MPa, respectively. The screws were located either at the flanges or webs, and the built-up sections include both open sections and closed sections. The moment capacities and observed failure modes of the beam tests are presented, and no failure was found in the screws. The local and distortional buckling behavior of the built-up section beam specimens were found to be different from the...

Cold-formed steel structures: Research review 2013–2014:

Abstract: This article reviews research on cold-formed steel structures published in 2013 and 2014 in three leading journals: the Journal of Structural Engineering, ASCE, Thin-Walled Structures and the Journ...