The hollow flange beam(HFB) is a unique cold-formed steel section developed in Australia for use as a flexural member.It′s a particular cross section with two torsion rigid closed triangular flanges and a comparatively flexible web,and it is a type of high efficient cross section.This paper presents two kinds of new cold-formed flange-closed welding sections named HF1 and HF2 according to different section component and parameters of HFB.Nonlinear finite element method has been adopted to investigate the mechanical properties such as buckling mode,deformation process,rigidity,ductility and correlation curve of two kinds of new section members which being subjected to axial compression,flexure,combined compression and bending.Systematical comparisons of the consumed steel quantities of per unit load carrying capacity between new section members and the same section dimensions of cold-formed C-section members have been carried out.Some conclusions can be drawn from above work that the new sections have some superior properties including higher load carrying capacity and section modulus,sufficient section stiffness,and difficult occurrence for the sub element local buckling.The new sections are suitable for bearing flexure,compression,combined compression and bending.The new sections′ consumed steel quantities of per unit load carrying capacity are almost half as those of the same dimension C-section members′.The experimental investigation is carried out further on the new cold-formed flange-closed welding section members and can be used in the practical engineering.
