Using cold-formed steel section in buildings-comparative study

One of the major concerns of structural engineers is to implement more efficient design solutions in terms of construction speed and simplicity to achieve economy in a minimized time. Through the years, conventional solutions such as the use of reinforced concrete have been the most prevalent option. Nevertheless, construction industry has constantly evolved and more practical solutions have been recognized. In view of this, it is interesting to study new alternatives that could provide more economical solutions in design. This can be achieved by comparing conventional materials to improved material alternatives including different structural designs.This paper presents a comparative study of a 4-story office building using three different materials: Cold Formed Steel Section (CFSS), Reinforced Concrete (RC) and Hot Rolled Steel Section (HRSS). The main structural members of each building were designed according to Eurocodes and BS Standards using linear elastic analysis. Design results were obtained and many outcomes were produced regarding the weight of the building, material cost, construction cost, total cost (material cost + construction cost) and the construction duration.The findings show that using Cold-Formed Steel Sections (CFSS) in a mid-rise building offers significant economies in material and total building costs as well as major reductions in construction time, in place of reinforced concrete (RCC) and hot-rolled steel (HRS). In addition, it was discovered that the cost of material mainly influences the total HRS building cost, while construction has a great impact on the overall RCC building cost.