The Canadian Standards Association (CSA) and the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) have released the second edition of the North American Specification for the Design of Cold-formed Steel Structural Members.

The North American Specification harmonizes cold-formed steel design technology among the United States, Canada, and Mexico, allowing faster introduction of new technologies, design aids, and educational materials. Updates include provisions for:

• distortional buckling for flexural and compression members;
• determining required brace strength and stiffness for an axially loaded compression member; and
• evaluating the structural performance of a cold-formed steel member subject to combined bending and torsion loading.

It also includes more economical designs and allows use of the direct strength method as a design approach.