Optimization Tool for Establishing Minimal Families of Cold-formed Steel Sections for Production

The invention is a new algorithm that produces a family of minimal weight cold-formed steel lipped channels with the smallest number of individual cross-sections (family size) that are still capable of covering the current engineering design demands as commonly found in light steel framing. The algorithms shows that a new family of shapes with only 12 sections can achieve the same or better performance as the 108 sections commercially available in the United States.The developed family of shapes provides a direct demonstration of the potential for optimization to improve cold-formed steel manufacturing. 

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