Engineering Structures 27 (2005) 1724

www.elsevier.com/locate/engstruct

Optimum design of cold-formed steel channel beams using

micro Genetic Algorithm
Jaehong Leea,, Sun-Myung Kimb, Hyo-Seon Parkc, Byung-Hun Wood
a Department of Architectural Engineering, Sejong University, 98 Kunja Dong, Kwangjin Gu, Seoul 143-797, Republic of Korea
b Korea Institute of Construction Technology, 2311 Daewha Dong Ilsan Gu Goyang, Gyeonggi Do 411-712, Republic of Korea

c Department of Architectural Engineering, Yonsei University, 134 Sinchon Dong, Seodaemun Gu, Seoul 120-749, Republic of Korea
d LOTTE Engineering and Construction, 50-2 Jamwon Dong, Seocho Gu, Seoul 137-906, Republic of Korea

Received 24 February 2003; received in revised form 11 August 2004; accepted 16 August 2004
Available online 25 September 2004

Abstract
An important advantage of cold-formed steel is the great flexibility of cross-sectional profiles and sizes available to structural steel
designers. However, this flexibility makes the selection of the most economical section difficult for a particular situation. In this study, a
micro Genetic Algorithm (-GA) is used to find an optimum cross-section of cold-formed steel beams. The -GA is one of the improved
form of GAs, to reduce iteration and computing resources by using small populations. The design curves are generated for optimum values
of the thickness and the web flat-depth-to-thickness ratio for unbraced beams under uniformly distributed load. As numerical results, the
optimum design curves are presented for various load level.
2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Cold-formed steel channel beams; Optimization; Micro-genetic algorithm

1. Introduction
Cold-formed steels are structural members that are made
from cold-forming a thin plate which is from 0.8 to 6 mm
and has a section shape with the right purpose. One of the advantages of cold-formed steels is that the strength-to-weight
ratio is much higher than that of common hot-rolled shapes,
thus it can reduce the total weight of the structures. They can
also be easily manufactured and sized to meet any structural
requirement. Due to these advantages, cold-formed steel
members are considered economical for low-rise buildings.
Different from hot-rolled shapes that must have been
selected from precast goods, cold-formed steels have
permanent choices, thus provide full advantages to
designers. However, this merit can be sometimes be a
disadvantage as designers must find the optimum section
size and shape for given conditions. For this reason,
Corresponding author. Tel.: +82 2 3408 3287; fax: +82 2 3408 3331.

E-mail address: jhlee@sejong.ac.kr (J. Lee).

0141-0296/$ - see front matter 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.engstruct.2004.08.008

optimization techniques for cold-formed steel sections have

been studied since the late 1990s. The optimization of coldformed steels using a neural network has been studied by
Karimm and Adeli [1], and El-Kassas et al. [2]. Adeli [1]
investigated the optimum hat section of cold-formed steel
beams under uniformly distributed loading. Mackie [2]
studied the potential for using neural networks to optimize
a cold-formed steel channel, lipped channel and hat section.
In this paper, an optimum design is presented for simply
supported cold-formed steel channel beams under uniformly
distributed load by using micro genetic algorithms (MGAs).
In the optimization process, all the possible structural effects
including moment, shear, deflection, and web crippling are
considered as constraints, and the optimum design crosssection is determined for various levels of loading.
2. Design of cold-formed steel channel beams
Cold-formed steel structures are susceptible to local
buckling well below the global buckling load level due

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J. Lee et al. / Engineering Structures 27 (2005) 1724

Fig. 1. Consecutive stages of stress distribution in stiffened compression elements.

Fig. 3. Compression flange.

Fig. 2. Effective width (b) of stiffened compression elements.

to high web flat-width-to-thickness (w/t) and flange flatwidth-to-thickness ratios. Unlike one-dimensional structural
members such as columns, stiffened compression elements
such as a compression web do not collapse when the
buckling stress is reached. Instead, an additional load can
be carried by the element after buckling by means of a
redistribution of stress as shown in Figs. 1 and 2. This
phenomenon is known as postbuckling strength and is most
pronounced for elements with large w/t ratios. In Fig. 1, Fcr
is the local buckling stress and Fy is the yield stress of the
plate.
Because the postbuckling strength is not treated enough
in the structural design criteria of hot-rolled shapes, the
American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) [4] estimates the
strength using a concept of Effective width which was first
introduced by von Krmn [5] in 1932 (Fig. 2) to consider
postbuckling strength as given in Eq. (1).

w
f dx = b f max
(1)
o

where b is called effective width.

In what follows, the AISI specification [4] governing the
design of cold-formed steel channel beams used in this work
is summarized.
2.1. Effective width of the compression flange
A flat compression element that is stiffened at only one
edge parallel to the direction of stress is an unstiffened
compression element (u.c.e.) as shown in Fig. 3. According
to AISI [4], the effective width (b) under uniformly
distributed load is calculated as

w
( 0.673)
b=
(2)
w
( < 0.673)

where = (1 0.22/)/, and is the plate slenderness

factor determined by

f
=
.
(3)
Fcr
In Eq. (3), Fcr is the buckling stress of the plate given by
 2
2E
t
Fcr = k
(4)
12(1 2 ) w
where k is the plate buckling coefficient, which becomes
0.43 for an unstiffened compression element. E is the elastic
modulus, is Poissons ratio of steel. In Fig. 3, f is the
average normal stress in the element.

2.2. Effective width of the compression web

In the structural design process of cold-formed steel
members, the effective width in the compression portion of
the web is the sum of b1 and b2 as shown in Fig. 4. The
detailed procedure of the determination of the effective web
depth is described in Fig. 5.
Fig. 5 illustrates the determination of the effective width
of the web using an iterative method. First, supposing
the web is fully effective, calculate the neutral axis, and
get the sum of b1 and b2 of the effective width of the
compression web using the plate buckling coefficient and
plate slenderness factor. If the sum of b1 and b2 is larger
than the length of the compression web, the web is fully
effective. Otherwise, the neutral axis should be recalculated.
This process should be repeated until the error becomes
negligibly small.
In Fig. 5, h 0 is the out-to-out depth of the web, b0 is
the out-to-out width of the compression flange, h c is the
compression portion of the web, and is the value of error
predefined by the user.

J. Lee et al. / Engineering Structures 27 (2005) 1724

19

Fig. 4. Webs and other stiffened elements under a stress gradient.

2.3. Nominal bending strength of cold-formed steel channel

beams
The nominal moments of cold-formed steel channel
beams can be calculated by considering the effective section
modulus (Se ) which is calculated based on the effective
length of the section. The nominal moment, Mn , is given
by
Mn = Se Fy

(5)

where Fy is design yield stress of the steel.

where
2 Es
(K y L y /r y )2


2 E s Cw
1
GJ +
=
(K t L t )2
Ar02

ey =

(11)

(12)

A:
Cb :
Cw :
Sf:
r0 :

Full unreduced cross-sectional area

Bending coefficient
Warping coefficient
Section modulus of the full section
Polar radius of gyration
of the cross-section about the shear center
Effective length factor for bending
about the y-axis and for twisting
Unbraced length of compression member for
bending about the y-axis and for twisting

2.4. Nominal moments for lateral buckling strength

K y , Kt :
Cold-formed steel beams are prone to lateral buckling if
braces are not adequately provided. In the design of coldformed steel beams, the moment capacity is governed by the
lateral buckling strength of the member as well as the section
strength of the cross-section. AISI [4] suggests nominal
moments strength for lateral buckling as follows:
Mn = Sc Fc

(a) For Fe 2.78Fy

(b) For 2.78Fy > Fe > 0.56Fy


10Fy
10
Fy 1
.
Fc =
9
36Fe

(7)

(8)

(c) For Fe 0.56Fy

Fc = Fe

2.5. Shear strength of the cold-formed steel channel beams

(6)

where Sc is the elastic section modulus of the effective

section calculated at a stress Fc relative to the extreme
compression fiber and Fc is determined as follows:

Fc = Fy .

L y, Lt :

(9)

where Fe is the elastic critical lateraltorsional buckling

stress calculated as follows:
Cb r0 A
Fe =
ey t
(10)
Sf

According to AISI [4], the nominal shear strength of

cold-formed steel channel beams, Vn , can be calculated as
follows:
Vn = Aw Fv

(13)

where Aw is the area of the web (=ht), and Fv is the nominal

shear stress calculated as follows:

(a) For h/t Ekv /Fy
Fv = 0.60Fy .


(b) For Ekv /Fy < h/t 1.51 Ekv /Fy

0.60 Ekv /Fy
Fv =
.
(h/t)

(c) For h/t > 1.51 Ekv /Fy
Fv =

2 Ekv
= 0.904Ekv /(h/t)2
12(1 2 )(h/t)2

(14)

(15)

(16)

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J. Lee et al. / Engineering Structures 27 (2005) 1724

Fig. 5. Calculation of effective web depth.

where h is the depth of the flat portion of the web measured

along the plane of web, t is the thickness of the web, and kv
is the shear buckling coefficient, which is equal to 5.34 for
unreinforced webs.
2.6. Combined bending and shear strength
The following interaction equation should be satisfied for
combined bending and shear strength of cold-formed steel
channel beams having unstiffened web:




b M 2
v V 2
+
1.0
(17)
Mnxo
Vn
where M and V are the required allowable moment and
shear strength resulting from uniformly distributed load,
respectively, b and v are the factor of safety for bending
(1.67) and shear (1.60), Mnxo is the nominal flexural strength
about the centroidal x-axes determined for bending only,
excluding lateral buckling, and Vn is the nominal shear
strength when shear alone is considered.
2.7. Web crippling strength
The webs of thin-walled cold-formed steel beams may
cripple due to the high local intensity of the load or

reaction. The nominal web crippling strength Pn for a single

unreinforced web can be determined as follows:


R
N
2
1 + CN
Pn = Ct Fy sin 1 C R
t
t


h
1 Ch
(18)
t
where N is the bearing length, R is the inside bend radius,
is the angle between the plane of the web and the bending
surface, C is the web crippling coefficient, C R is the inside
bend radius coefficient, C N is the bearing length coefficient
and Ch is the web slenderness coefficient. The coefficients
and safety factors are given in Table 1.
2.8. Combined bending and web crippling strength
Unreinforced flat webs of shapes subjected to a
combination of bending and concentrated load or reaction
should be designed to meet the following requirements:
 


b M
W P
+
1.5
(19)
1.2
Pn
Mnxo
where b and W are the factor of safety for bending
(1.67) and web crippling (1.80), P is the required allowable

J. Lee et al. / Engineering Structures 27 (2005) 1724

21

Table 1
Coefficients of single web channel and C-sections
C
4.00

CR

CN

Ch

0.40

0.60

0.03

ASD W

Safety Factors
LRFD W

Canada LSD W

Limits

1.80

0.85

0.7

R/t 2

strength for the concentrated load or reaction in the presence

of bending moment, and Pn is the nominal strength for
concentrated load or reaction in the absence of bending
moment determined in accordance with Section 2.7.
2.9. Deflection
The maximum deflection of a simply supported beam is
limited to L/300.
3. Optimization formulation for cold-formed steel channel beams

Fig. 6. Cross-section of a cold-formed steel channel.

as the manufacturing section size changes.

The optimum design formulation of cold-formed steel
channel beams is derived based on the AISI specification [4]
mentioned in the previous section. The objective function is
the cross-sectional area of beams consisting of four design
variablesdepth (D), width (B), thickness (t) and radius
(R). Eqs. (20) and (21) represent the objective function and
constraints of the present problem.
Minimize f (x) = (X 1 + 2X 2 0.86X 3 2.43X 4)X 4
(20)
(X 1 = D, X 2 = B, X 3 = R, X 4 = t)
Mn
b
L

300
Vn
V
v




b M 2
v V 2
+
1.0
Mnxo
Vn
Pn
P
w
 


b M
W P
+
1.5
1.2
Pn
Mnxo
h
200
t
b
60
t

Subject to : M

(21)

where f (x) is the cross-sectional area of a cold-formed steel

channel beam.
The upper and lower bounds of each design variable are
considered for manufacturing, and used as side constraints
as Eqs. (22)(25). The side constraints are subject to change

D L D DU
B L B BU

(22)
(23)

R L R RU
t L t tU .

(24)
(25)

Since the Genetic Algorithm is an unconstrained optimization technique, the optimization formulation is transformed by using the penalty function method as given in
Eq. (26). Penalty terms are added to the original objective
function when any constraint is violated. The amount of
penalty is decided by the ratio of violation. Each gene might
have a higher fitness value in the fitness evaluation in the
Genetic Algorithm as each gene has a lower objective function value. The opportunity to be a parent gene is reduced
as having lower fitness value; therefore, the gene with lower
fitness value would have lower survival probability on the
next generation. Those genes would become extinct after
several generations and surviving genes with higher fitness
value should produce better children on the next generation.
Minimize F(X, M) = f (X)
(Required Strength Allowable Strength)
(26)
F(X, M) = f (X) + penalty(X)
(Required Strength > Allowable Strength)



300 v V
b M 2
b M
+
+
+
penalty (X) = r
Mn
L
Vn
Mnxo

2
1 b w P
v V
1 h
+
+
+
+
Vn
200 t
60 t
Pn
 
 2

1
b M
W P
+
(27)
+
1.2
1.5
Pn
Mnxo
where, r is a penalty constant.

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J. Lee et al. / Engineering Structures 27 (2005) 1724

Fig. 7. Micro Genetic Algorithm (MGA).

4. Micro Genetic Algorithms

Genetic Algorithms (GAs) are search algorithms based
on the mechanics of natural selection and natural genetics.
They combine survival of the fittest among string structures
with a structured yet randomized information exchange to
form a search algorithm with some of the innovative flair
of human search. While heuristic search methods such as
simulated annealing or taboo search use one solution on their
process to find the optimum point, GAs use the population
of solutions to find the optimum point. It is known that with
mathematical optimization methods which use a gradient
vector and Hessian it is difficult to find the optimum point
if there are a lot of local optima around the optimum point
and a steep gradient around the optimum point [7]. GAs do
not use a gradient vector and Hessian, but use object function
value during their search. In its standard form, application of
a GA requires the representation of design variables in terms
of bit strings that are counterparts of natural chromosomes,
made up of a string of genes.
It is known that more than 30 individuals should be used
in Genetic Algorithms in order to prevent genetic drift [8].
As the population size increases, the algorithms find a better
solution. A bigger population size, however, requires more
computational time to find the optimum solution [6]. For this
reason, Goldberg [6,7] proposed Serial Genetic Algorithms
(SGAs) which use a small population size comparing
to conventional GAs. Based on SGAs, Krishnakumar [3]
proposed Micro Genetic Algorithms (MGAs) in 1989.
MGAs use a relatively smaller population size than SGAs
resulting in less computational time. Moreover, MGAs use

elitism and convergence checking with re-initialization to

obtain the optimal or near optimal solutions.
In order to determine the appropriate population size in
this study, the various population sizes of 10, 12, 14, 16
and 18 individuals are tested, respectively. It appears that all
the five population sets show similar convergence rate with
different computational time. Accordingly, the population
size of 10 individuals is selected. The flowchart of MGAs
used in this study is illustrated in Fig. 7.
The modified MGA with multi point crossover shows
better performance than the algorithms with one point
crossover. In the MGAs, there are two stopping criteria
called inner and outer criteria. If the solution does not evolve
within 10 inner loops, the inner loop is terminated, and the
outer loop is performed until the total generation reaches 500
times. Therefore, the number of inner and outer loops varies,
but the total number of generations is fixed. Moreover, the
crossover rate is set as 1.0; therefore all populations must
perform a crossover operation at every generation. There is
no use of mutation operation because the restart operation
and 1.0 crossover rate provide adequate variability.
5. Optimization of the cold-formed steel channel beam
section
In this parametric study, a simply supported cold-formed
steel channel beam under uniformly distributed load (q) is
considered as shown in Fig. 8. The load is assumed to be
applied at the shear center, and thus no flexuraltorsional
coupling is generated prior to lateral buckling.

J. Lee et al. / Engineering Structures 27 (2005) 1724

23

Fig. 8. A simply supported cold-formed steel channel beam under uniformly

distributed loading.

Fig. 10. Optimum design thickness versus span length with no bearing
length.

Fig. 9. Convergence curve of the cross-sectional area.

The span length of the beam is assumed to be varied from

1 to 5 m. The yield stress and modulus of elasticity of steel
are 240 MPa and 210 GPa, respectively. In the optimum
design process of the cold-formed steel channel beam, the
depth of the web (D) and the thickness of the section (t)
are considered as design variables while the flange length
(B) and corner radius (R) are fixed to 4.0 and 0.5 cm,
respectively (Fig. 6). The upper and lower bounds of D
and t are assumed to be 10.0 cm D 30.0 cm and
0.07 cm t 0.3 cm considering the manufacturing. The
flange length (B) and corner radius (R) are fixed because
it is shown from the preliminary studies that they are less
sensitive than the depth of the web and thickness on the
strength of cold-formed steel channel beams.
The convergence curve of the cross-sectional area is
illustrated with respect to the generation size in Fig. 9 for
L = 4.0 m and q = 0.3 kN/m. Three different simulations
were performed with error less than 3.0%.
The optimum thickness and the flat-depth-to-thickness
ratio of the web with respect to the span length are shown in
Figs. 10 and 11 for various intensity of the load. Among the
structural behavior of beams (i.e. moment, shear, deflection,
web crippling, etc.), cold-formed steel channel beams yield
to web crippling in the range A where the span length is
relatively short and to moment in the range of B and C. Each
range can be explained as follows.

Fig. 11. Optimum design web flat-depth-to-thickness ratio versus span

length with no bearing length.

Range B: Lateral buckling governs the behavior of the

beams. While the depth of the web is fixed, the
thickness increases remarkably to satisfy the lateral
buckling strength constraint. Accordingly, the flatdepth-to-thickness ratio of the web decreases
greatly compared with range A and the web is still
fully effective.
Range C: Only the web depth increases remarkably to
satisfy the lateral buckling constraints because the
thickness has already reached the upper bound.
The minimum cross-sectional area versus span length for
cold-formed steel channel beams is illustrated in Fig. 12.
Generally, the cross-sectional area increases as the span
length increases. Especially, it increases greatly in range C
where the web depth increases remarkably to satisfy all the
constraints.
6. Conclusion

Range A: While the web depth is fixed, the thickness

increases to satisfy the web crippling strength
constraint. Accordingly, the flat-depth-to-thickness
ratio of the web decreases with increasing span
length and the web is fully effective.

In this study, the shape optimization of cross-sections

of cold-formed steel channel beams under uniformly
distributed load was presented by using MGAs. The
optimum solution is obtained by using a small population

24

J. Lee et al. / Engineering Structures 27 (2005) 1724

span. The study for more various sections of cold-formed

steel channels awaits further attention.
Acknowledgment
The first author would like to express his gratitude
for the financial support by the Korea Institute of
Industrial Technology Evaluation and Planning through
Grant 10002825.
References

Fig. 12. Optimum design cross-sectional area versus span length.

compared with SGAs, and the parameters used in genetic

operation can be predetermined. MGAs showed excellent
performance on the minimum weight design of coldformed steel channel beams which use two design variables
(depth of the web and thickness). It is found that simply
supported cold-formed steel channel beams under uniformly
distributed load are governed by bending strength and
web crippling rather than the other structural constraints
(i.e., shear and deflection). For relatively short span length,
web crippling is governing the constraints, whereas the
bending strength governs the behavior of beams with longer

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[2] El-Kassas EMA, Mackie RI, El-Sheikh AI. Using neural networks in
cold-formed steel design. 2001. p. 168796.
[3] Krishnakumar K. Micro-genetic algorithms for stationary and nonstationary function optimization. SPIE, Intelligent Control and
Adaptive Systems, vol. 1196. 1989. p. 28296.
[4] American Iron and Steel Institute. North American Specification for the
design of cold-formed steel structural members. 2001.
[5] von Krmn T, Sechler EE, Donnell LH. The strength of thin plates in
compression. Transactions ASME, vol. 54. APM; 1932. p. 545.
[6] Goldberg DE. Sizing populations for serial and parallel genetic
algorithms. In: Proceeding 3rd international conference on genetic
algorithms and their applications. 1989. p. 709.
[7] Goldberg DE. Genetic algorithms in search, Optimization and machine
learning. Addison-Wesley; 1989.
[8] Mitchell M. An introduction to genetic algorithms. MIT Press; 1996.