Alternative Design Methods
The Direct Strength Method (DSM) is an alternative method of design located in Appendix 1 of the North American Specification for the Design of Cold-formed Steel Structural Members 2007 (AISI S100-07). DSM may be used in lieu of the Main Specification for determining nominal member capacities. Specific advantages include the absence of effective width and iterations, while only using known gross-sectional properties. An increase in prediction confidence stems from forced compatibility between section flanges and web throughout elastic buckling analysis. This increase in prediction accuracy for any section geometry provides a solid basis for rational analysis extension and encourages cross-sectional optimization. Either DSM or the main specification can be used with confidence as the Φ or Ω factors have been designed to insure that both methods are accurate. Currently, DSM only provides solutions for beams and columns and has to be used in conjunction with the main specification for a complete design.
Rational analysis is permitted when using optimized cold form shapes that are outside of the scope of the main specification and are not pre-qualified for DSM use. These non pre-qualified sections use the factors of safety of ϕ and Ω associated with rational analysis (see AISI 2001 Section A1.1 (b)). The result of the rational analysis times the appropriate factor of safety will be used as the design strength of the section.
Several situations may exist where a rational analysis application of DSM can be used. In general these would include: (1) determining the elastic buckling values and (2) using the DSM equations in Appendix 1 to determine nominal flexural and axial capacities, Mn and Pn. The premise of DSM itself is an example of rational analysis. It uses elastic buckling results to determine the ultimate strength through the use of empirical strength curves. This provides designers with a method for performing a rational analysis in a number of unique situations.
In some cases the rational analysis extension to DSM may be as simple as dealing with an observed buckling mode that is difficult to identify and making a judgment call as to how to categorize the mode. But it could also be used to allow an engineer to include the effects of moment gradients, the influence of different end conditions, or the influence of torsion warping on all buckling modes.
There are currently no provisions within the DSM that pertain to shear, web crippling, holes in members, or strength increases due to the cold work of forming. Research on several of these topics has been completed or is in the process of being completed and should be included in the next update of the AISI Specification. DSM is also limited in determining strength for sections in which very slender elements are used. This is due to the strength of a cross section being predicted as a whole with DSM instead of using the effective width method of the specification which breaks the cross section up into several effective elements. One slender element will cause low strength with DSM, which is not the case with the current specification method. The finite strip method using CUFSM is the most commonly used approach to determine the elastic buckling loads. The program also limits DSM because holes cannot be considered, loads have to be uniform along the member, only simply supported boundary conditions are considered, and the buckling modes interact and cannot be easily distinguishable in some cases.
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