Simplified formulae for coordinate of shear center of cold-formed thin-walled lipped channel

In order to simplify the process of determining the elastic distortional buckling load of cold-formed thin-walled lipped channel, this paper firstly deduced the analytical formulas to determine coordinates of shear center of classic sections based on the thin-walled member theory. Parameters analyses were then carried out with the program MATLAB, leading to the simple formulas for predicting the coordinates of shear center. It proved that the proposed formulas are accurate enough and the precision of coordinate of shear center has very little effect on distortional buckling load (with 10% deviation in shear center, the maximum percentage error in distortional buckling load is less than 5%). These formulas, therefore, may be used in determination of distortional buckling load for convenience and simplification.