S136 Cold Formed Steel Design Examples

[CBEngi]

I am currently reviewing the adequacy of some OWSJ that were designed under a previous addition of the NBCC. The owner wants to put new HVAC units on the roof. I have completed the initial analysis with the new roof snow loading and the unit loading.

I haven't worked with the cold formed steel code before. I'm wondering if anyone knows of any design examples or books that would be helpful to take a look at. I'm working within the Canadian design standards.

Also there is some nasty obscure sections used, if anyone has a handy section property calculator/website they frequently used I would greatly appreciate the input.

 

[KootK]

Ughh... not a fun task in my experience. Assuming that you're dealing with hat sections, I found examples in these references:

1) AISI - Cold Formed Design Manual
2) LaBoube - Cold Formed Steel Design

Here's some free software that I found useful: Link

And here`s a thread that I initiated related to checking the seat assemblys: Link. That is by far the worst bit in my opinion. I never really got that resolved to my satisfaction. If you get it sorted out, please do report back.

Your best bet, by far, is to identify the joist supplier and have them do the engineering. It`s safer, cheaper for the owner, and easier for you. I imagine that you`ve already explored that and dead ended however.

Whenever I look at cold formed OWSJ, I invariably find that they are designed right to the nuts. If I use simplified methods or simplifying assumptions, thinks stop working. It`s rough.

The greatest trick that bond stress ever pulled was convincing the world it didn't exist.