Cold-formed thin-walled steel (CFTWS) sections are extensively employed in construction for their benefits of being lightweight and strong. However, distortional buckling often limits their load-carrying capacity. The purpose of this paper is to review and summarize a series of issues related to the distortional buckling of CFTWS members. The paper first introduces concepts related to distortional buckling of CFTWS to help readers quickly understand the theme of this study. It then reviews the current research status of distortional buckling of CFTWS members in chronological order, including experimental studies, theoretical analyses, and numerical simulations. Subsequently, some classical analysis methods for distortional buckling are provided, and the pros and cons of different design approaches are examined. Finally, based on the characteristics of existing research, reasonable future directions are proposed. This paper can provide guidance for the future development of CFTWS structural technology and offer theoretical support for the engineering application of CFTWS sections.
Zou et al. (Sun,) studied this question.