Cold-Formed Steel Member Design Calculator
Lipped C or Z cold-formed steel member design by the Direct Strength Method to SANS 10162-2 (an adoption of AS/NZS 4600). Compression (global, local and distortional buckling), bending, shear and combined axial+bending capacity for a single channel or a back-to-back / toe-to-toe built-up pair — with a cross-section diagram and a printable clause-by-clause calc sheet. This is a member-capacity calculator; for purlin span/loading design see the dedicated Purlin Design Calculator.
Inputs
Section
| Area A | — |
| Ix / Iy | — |
| rx / ry | — |
| Shear centre x0 / y0 | — |
| Cw / J | — |
| DSM prequalification | — |
Design result SANS 10162-2 / AS-NZS 4600 · DSM
| Compression φcNc | — |
| Governing (compression) | — |
| Bending φbMbx (major) | — |
| Governing (bending, major) | — |
| Bending φbMby (minor) | — |
| Shear φvVv | — |
| Axial N* | — |
| Moment Mx* | — |
| Moment My* | — |
| Shear V* | — |
| lambda_c / l / d (compression) | — |
| Governing check | — |
Design checks
Step-by-step calculation
This isn't a toy calculator
Distortional buckling here shares its bending-mode math with the shipped, CUFSM-validated purlin calculator (Lau & Hancock closed form, Appendix D) — the same standard STATIX holds across analysis, design and connections. The compression branch of distortional buckling is a documented [VERIFY] item pending an independent CUFSM cross-check (see the calc sheet). A full 3D suite with native CBFEM is planned.