In 2016, the North American Specification for the Design of Cold-Formed Steel Structural Members underwent a major reorganization to be more in-line with the AISC Specification for Structural Steel.  Are you aware of the current AISI standards available and where to find design criteria for structural members or framing systems?

In the December 2022 SEU session, Roger LaBoube, PhD, PE, from Missouri University of Science and Technology, presented Cold-Formed Steel Standards (2022).  Roger noted the available cold-formed steel design standards and identified changes to these standards as adopted by IBC 2021.  He also clarified the interdependence of the cold-formed steel framing standards and the cold-formed steel specification.

While giving an overview of the North American Standards for Cold-Formed Steel Structural Framing, Roger walked through the AISI Standards, what is included in them, and recent changes made to the standards.  Specifically, Roger addressed the difference between AISI S100 which is the North American Specification for the Design of Cold-Formed Steel Structural Members and AISI S240 which is the Cold-Formed Steel Structural Framing standard. 

Roger explained the rationale for the development of AISI S240.  While AISI S100 gives criteria for designing an individual member or connection, AISI S240 was developed to address the design criteria of a system.  To hear Roger explain several examples of when to refer to S240 as opposed to S100, watch this short 5 minute video:

AISI S100 and S240 are available for FREE download, along with the other AISI standards on the Free Publications page on the Cold Formed Steel Engineers Institute website.