In the present days, thin-walled structural members are getting used more and more
in the industrial domain, that’s why the research of these type of elements demands a lot of
attention. One special place between these elements, is occupied by the cold-formed
trapezoidal steel sheets.
The evolution of this domain concluded in appearance of a numerous manufacturers
producing trapezoidal steel sheets, for industrial roofing and structure covering. Due to the
high competition, the efficiency and accuracy in determining the load carrying capacity of
the sheets has a key role. The methods used to achieve these results have to be conformed
with the codes and standards of the country where the sheets are going to be in service.
The following study researches the behaviour of trapezoidal steel sheets submitted
to bending. The main concept of the paper, is to compare the results of the experimental
test, performed at Escola Tecnica Superior d’Enginyeria Industrial de Barcelona with the
North-American and European design methods.
Aspects, that are examined in the paper are the failure mode and the types of
buckling modes that appear in the sheeting. There is a complex presentation of the
researches that the project is based on, the software analyses performed in different
programs: CUFSM, Ansys-Mechanical APDL; tend to reproduce the real scale experimental
test.
The FEM analysis appears to be a very good scientific tool to identify the behaviour
of trapezoidal steel sheets, given the similarities between the model results and the
experimental ones. The design methods use different approaches, but converge to affined
results.
