Flexural performance of built-up cold-formed steel beam filled with compacted soil

Abstract

Cold-formed steel is the well-liked structural materials in the construction industry and used as an alternative construction material upon the traditional material such as reinforced concrete, hot-rolled steel or timber. The purpose of compacted soil is filled into a cold formed steel section to contribute to the environmentally friendly with reasonable strength and can also reduce production costs without concrete beams. The cold-formed steel material is selected and combined with the compacted soil to construct the beam that could increase the ultimate moment. Compacted soil from the Kaolinite group is prepared and tested to find out its properties. Two cold-formed steel channels are connected face to face to form a built-up box section, tightened with bolts and nuts. Three different bolt spacing arrangements are prepared. The main purpose of the study is to determine the ultimate load of the beam with and without compacted soil, as well as to investigate the relationship of the bolt spacing arrangement to ultimate load resistance. From the result, built-up CFS beam with compacted soil (CFSBCS) showed higher values of the ultimate moment compared to built-up CFS beam without compacted soil (CFSB). Bolt arrangement in the middle spacing influenced the overall ultimate load resistance of the beam. The ultimate load resistance reduced when the length subtraction between bolt arrangement, B and C is less. It is concluded that CFSBCS is able to achieve reasonable ultimate moment and also able to increase initial stiffness.