Seismic Performance of Cold-Formed Steel Framed Shear Walls using In-Frame Corrugated Steel Sheathing

To meet the increasing demand for high strength and non-combustible shear wall systems in midrise cold-formed steel (CFS) constructions, an innovative CFS shear wall system with in-frame corrugated steel sheathing is invented and investigated in this paper experimentally and numerically. Bearing wall and shear wall specimens with in-frame corrugated steel sheathing are tested under combined lateral and gravity loading. The results show that the shear strength of the innovative shear wall is higher than currently code certified shear walls in AISI S400 so that it could be employed for mid-rise buildings in areas that are prone to high seismic, and wind loads more efficiently. It is also found that the shear strength of bearing walls is approximately one-third of the shear strength of shear walls, which proves that bearing walls also provide significant shear resistance in a structure. To evaluate and quantify the seismic performance factors of this new lateral force-resisting system, nonlinear static and dynamic analyses are performed on 6 building archetypes by using OpenSees software according to the methodology recommended by FEMA P695. The seismic performance evaluation results verified that the existing seismic performance factors used for light-framed shear wall systems with flat steel sheets can also be used for the innovative cold-formed steel shear wall system.

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