Failure of Cold-Formed Steel Beams during Concrete Placement

During a concrete placement on the second story of a building under construction, the supporting cold-formed steel beams collapsed. Four workers were injured. The collapse occurred while concrete was being placed onto steel decking on the second floor of the structure. Cold-formed steel beams, without shoring, supported the steel decking. Analysis of the steel beams under the weight of concrete and workers using the applicable American Concrete Institute and American Iron and Steel Institute documents indicated that the beams were overstressed for construction loads. After the collapse, part of the structure was rebuilt using thicker beams. For the reconstruction, the slab was shored. Designing with cold-formed steel requires knowledge of failure modes that can often be safely ignored with hot-rolled steel, such as local buckling. Engineers designing with this material should take care to obtain the proper codes and design documents.