Resistance factor calibration for cold-formed steel compression members

The objective of this paper is to provide a review of the calibration procedure of the resistance factor for a target reliability index. Resistance factors for cold-formed steel columns are calculated with a first order second moment reliability approach. A test database of 323 cold-formed steel columns concentrically loaded with plain and lipped C-section was assembled, and test-to-predicted statistics were obtained for the three design methods available in Brazilian cold-formed steel code: the Effective Width Method (EWM), the Effective Section Method (ESM) and the Direct Strength Method (DSM). For the normal load combination, dead-to-live load ratio of 1/3, and target reliability index beta(o) = 2.5, the calculated resistance factors, gamma, for the three methods are consistent with current value specified by Brazilian code. For all methods, with target reliability index beta(o) = 3.0, the calculated resistance factors, gamma, are higher than the current value used in Brazilian code.