ColdSteel

http://www.civil.usyd.edu.au/case/software.shtml

Program Information
Coinciding with the publication of the third edition of Professor Gregory Hancock’s book Design of
Cold-Formed Steel Structures, his colleague Dr Murray Clarke has released the computer software
ColdSteel/4600 which brings cold-formed steel design to AS/NZS 4600:1996 within the practical reach
of all structural engineers. The software has been developed within the Centre for Advanced Structural
Engineering over a number of years and has been rigorously tested against the design examples in
Professor Hancock’s book and a range of other problems.
The program runs in a standalone interactive mode under the Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP operating
systems. ColdSteel/4600 is intended to be used as a cold-formed steel design “calculator” that facilitates
the semi-automated design of cold-formed steel structural members by freeing the engineer from the
complex detail of effective section, distortional buckling stress and other detailed design computations.
ColdSteel/4600 performs all the relevant member strength calculations for a range of commonly used
cold-formed profile shapes including angle sections, channel sections, Z-sections, hat sections,
rectangular hollow sections, and circular hollow sections as shown in Fig. 1. An example problem which
can be investigated using ColdSteel/4600 is shown in Fig. 2, with the corresponding main form with all
relevant data shown in Fig. 3. The program can then run in either a “check” or “design” mode as depicted
in Figs. 4 and 5, respectively.
ColdSteel/4600 has extensive reporting and graphical visualisation facilities. For any particular check or
design, the program provides a complete list of all cross-sectional properties for both the full and
effective sections, all nominal and design member capacities, the “load factor” against limit states failure
for all relevant strength limit states, and other miscellaneous parameters such as elastic column buckling
stresses, elastic beam lateral buckling moments, and distortional buckling stresses. The graphical
capabilities of ColdSteel/4600 enable the visualisation of the effective sections in compression and
bending as shown in Figs 6 and 7, respectively.
There is no other software on the market which is comparable to ColdSteel/4600. If you are in the
business of cold-formed steel design, ColdSteel/4600 will quickly become an indispensable design tool.
Fig. 1 ColdSteel/4600 section class icon palette

Fig. 2 Lipped channel beam in uniform bending

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Fig. 3 Main form of ColdSteel/4600

Fig. 4 Member strength check results form

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Fig. 5 Member design results form

Fig. 6 Effective section in compression

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Fig. 7 Effective section in bending

Download a Demonstration Copy & Demo

Visit our website: http://ww.civil.usyd.edu.au/case/software.shtml

SALES INQUIRIES
Information about computer software and prices is available from:

Dr John Papangelis
Phone: 61 2 9351 3837
Fax: 61 2 9351 3343
Email: jpp@civil.usyd.edu.au

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