Laser welded built-up cold-formed steel beams: experimental investigations

The results of a research project aimed at designing and developing a built-up cold-formed steel beam assembled by laser welding are described in this paper. The research activity was concerned with the evaluation of the applicability of laser welded connections to cold-formed members and with the assessment of the load bearing capacity of the assembled beams. With this aim, both lap-shear and Utension tests were carried out on laser welds in order to assess the influence on connection strength of different parameters such as the gap between the steel sheets and the zinc coating. Finally, the load bearing capacity of laser welded built-up cold-formed members was investigated by four-point bending tests. Four full-scale prototypes were manufactured with different spacings of connections along the flanges in order to evaluate the effects of weld configuration on the load bearing capacity.