Owing to their enhanced load-carrying and serviceability performances, prestressed coldformed steel beams can potentially open up new applications within the construction industry. In the
proposed concept, an eccentric prestressing force is applied to cold-formed steel beams by means of a
cable that is housed within a bottom hollow flange. During prestressing, tensile stresses are induced
within the top region of the beam, thus delaying the occurrence of local instabilities under subsequent
vertical loading. Consequently, the moment capacity of the beam is enhanced. Furthermore, owing to
the prestressing, a pre-camber is also induced along the member, thus decreasing the overall vertical
deflections significantly. Following discussion of the mechanical behaviour of the proposed beams,
design recommendations are developed by employing interaction equations alongside the Direct
Strength Method. Subsequently, finite element (FE) analysis is employed to investigate the effects of the
prestress level and the section slenderness of the steel beam on the benefits obtained from the
prestressing process. The parametric FE results are then utilised to assess the design recommendations.