Cold-formed steel (CFS) structural members are commonly manufactured with holes to accommodate plumbing, electrical, and heating conduits in the walls and ceilings of buildings. Current design methods available to engineers for predicting the strength of CFS members with holes are prescriptive and limited to specific perforation locations, spacings, and sizes. The Direct Strength Method (DSM), a relatively new design method for CFS members validated for members without holes, predicts the ultimate strength of a general CFS column or beam with the elastic buckling properties of the member cross- section (e.g., plate buckling) and the Euler buckling load (e.g., flexural buckling). This research project, sponsored by the American Iron and Steel Institute, extends the appealing generality of DSM to cold-formed steel beams and columns with perforations.American Iron and Steel Institut
