Oral Presentation , Page 145-156 (12) Full Text (1.22 MB)

Volume Title: 3rd International Conference on Civil Engineering: Development & Sustainability

¹Ahmad Esam Khalil ; ²Sherif Ahmed Mourad; ³Maged Tawfick Hanna; ¹Amr Ibrahim

¹The British University in Egypt

²Cairo University

³Housing and Building National Research Center

Recently, the usage of Cold-Formed Steel (CFS) sections in construction has observed a significant upsurge. The connections of CFS buildings, in many instances, dictate their behavior. This research aims to investigate the structural performance of overlap connections in multi span cold formed steel (CFS) Z-purlin under monotonic loading. An overlap bolted connection is proposed for a multi span continuous purlin system to achieve economic benefits, while ensuring shear and moment transmission without pre-mature connection failure. The effects of overlap length and bolts arrangement were investigated in terms of flexural capacity and stiffness. Three specimens were experimentally tested, in which purlins are made up of CFS Z-sections, and high strength bolts with diameter 12 mm and grade 8.8 were used. The test setup consisted of two-span back-to-back CFS Z-specimens connected using overlap connection, with a point load applied at each span. Precautions were taken to eliminate the effect of lateral torsional buckling. The experimental results revealed that the proposed overlapped connection can transmit internal forces as well as providing a semi-rigid connection. Furthermore, increasing the overlap length improved the flexural behaviour of the specimens. Moreover, the bolts arrangement was crucial to enhancing both the strength and stiffness of the lapped connections.

Cold-Formed Sections; Purlin Connections; Overlap Z-sections; Experimental Testing; semi-rigid connections; Flexural capacity of connection; Moment vs rotation