Modified Strip Model for Analysis of High Capacity Cold‐formed Steel Shear Walls

Abstract

In this study, an innovative, high capacity cold‐formed steel (CFS) shear wall is proposed and tested with the aim of expanding CFS framing applications into mid‐to‐high rise buildings. The shear wall configuration comprises of a thin steel sheathing concentrically placed between built‐up hat section studs and built‐up, L‐shaped angle tracks. A preliminary, full‐scale testing program was conducted on the shear wall specimen which include monotonic and cyclic testing of the wall. To gain further insight on the behaviour of the shear wall specimen, shell finite element models were established and calibrated using the commercial software ABAQUS. In order to overcome convergence issues, the explicit solver was employed, and an extensive parametric study was carried out where several parameters such as the aspect ratio was assessed. Using the results of the parametric study, a model for predicting the monotonic response of the shear wall specimen is proposed. The model is based on a modified strip model formulation. Moreover, an analytical procedure, which is developed based on results of numerical analyses and the fundamentals of mechanics, is also proposed for determining the axial force and bending moment demand of the boundary studs. The modified strip model and the analytical procedure both incorporate semi‐rigid behaviour in the stud‐to‐track joints and have shown good correlation with the finite element numerical results, demonstrating that they can be utilized for preliminary design purposes.