Effect of Bracing Systems on Overall Stability and Deformability of Cold-Formed Steel Roofing Structures

Abstract

The paper deals on the theme of economical and reliable analysis and design of cold-formed thin-walled steel constructions. Cold-formed steel sections, which are successfully used in EU, North America and other countries for a quite long time, come to have ever more widespread usage on the markets of Eastern Europe and specifically in Ukraine. The most accepted sphere for thin-walled steel constructions usage in Ukraine is the roofing systems of civil and industrial buildings. At the same time, the working standard in steel construction often does not allow to design the strength of cold-formed steel sections considering their slenderness. In the paper the general methods of ensuring the structural stability of the light steel thin-walled roofing systems are described. In the work the results of a full-scale experimental investigation on the level of influence of bracing systems on civil buildings’ roofing constructions deformability are represented. The experimental research presupposes the examination of the behaviour of the roofing construction under load itself, when purlins with purlin braces and steel profiled sheets are sequentially switched in use.