UC San Diego

Abstract: Use of cold‐formed steel (CFS) framing as load‐bearing system for gravity and lateral loads in buildings is becoming increasingly common in the North American construction industry, notably in high seismic regions where light‐weight construction is an attractive option. Buildings framed with closely spaced and repetitively placed CFS members can be detailed to develop lateral resistance using a variety of sheathing options. A relatively new option involves the use of steel sheet as sheathing. Steel sheet sheathed CFS shear walls offer high lateral strength and stiffness, and provide ductility courtesy of tension field action within the steel sheet. Despite their acceptance, gaps in the understanding of their behavior do exist, notably, behavior under dynamic loading, the contribution of nonstructural architectural finishes, and the behavior of wall‐lines: shear walls placed inline with gravity walls. To this end, a two‐phased experimental effort was undertaken to advance understanding of the lateral response of CFS‐framed wall‐line systems. Specifically, a suite of wall‐lines, detailed for mid‐rise buildings, were evaluated through simulated seismic loading imposed via shake table and quasi‐static cyclic tests. Damage to the wall‐lines was largely manifested in the form of damage to fastener connections used for attaching the sheathing and gypsum panels, and separation of exterior finish layer. This paper documents and quantifies the progressively incurred physical damage observed in the tested wall‐line assemblies, and correlates it with the evolution of dynamic characteristics and hysteretic energy dissipated across a spectrum of performance levels.