Journal of Applied Science and Engineering

Published by Tamkang University Press

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Investigation of the Residual Capacity of Built-Up Columns with Different Configurations and Web Stiffeners under Post-Fire Conditions

 2026

 Volume 33

Wenjie Li

Shanxi Vocational University of Culture and Tourism, Taiyuan 030000, China

Received: October 13, 2025
Accepted: April 27, 2026
Publication Date: July 18, 2026

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Details of boundary conditions, screw arrangement, and contact interaction in the finite element model

 Copyright The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are cited.

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In structural applications, CFS (cold-formed steel) built-up columns with web stiffeners are widely used for their lightweight and high load-carrying capacity. However, this study examines CFS-built-up columns under post-fire axial compression using validated ABAQUS models. Configuration B shows up to 22.4% higher load capacity than Configuration A between 700◦C and 900◦C. CS- and CU-shaped columns are stronger among the various stiffener geometries considered, while C-shaped columns are the least effective in resisting loads. Additionally, the use of wider stiffeners ( b/4 = 12.75 mm ) outperforms narrower ones (b/6 = 8.5 mm) by up to 15%at high temperatures, and longer stiffeners (b) provide a 14% increase in load capacity compared to shorter stiffeners (b/3). These findings validate that an optimized stiffener design improves structural efficiency and fire resistance. Hence, these findings have important implications for the design of fire-resistant CFS structures.

Keywords: CFS; post-fire; residual capacity; web stiffener; column configuration; numerical analysis; ABAQUS

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