Capturing Cold-Formed Steel Shear Wall Behavior Through Nonlinear Fastener-Based Modeling

During the last few decades, cold-formed steel (CFS) has increasingly been used in low- and mid-rise construction across United States. Due to its high strength-to-weight ratio, its cost-efficiency, its ease in transportation and prefabrication, cold-formed steel as a structural or a non-structural component is commonly used as studs and tracks, joists, ledgers and as the main structural frame of shear walls in light-gauge construction. Cold-formed steel framed shear walls represent the principle lateral force resisting system. This work is focused on the stability of sheathed coldformed steel framed shear walls subjected to lateral loads, such as earthquake and wind events, using the high fidelity finite element software ABAQUS. In particular, a fastener-based three-dimensional cold-formed steel shear wall model is simulated through nonlinear connector elements for steel-to-sheathing connections, orthotropic oriented strand board (OSB) as sheathing material at the exterior side and linear hold downs at the base of the wall for preventing uplift. This study aims to introduce a robust high fidelity finite element computational model, capable of accurately capturing the stability of wood sheathed cold-formed steel framed shear walls under lateral loading with potential use in a full building finite element simulation. Finally, the introduced model is validated by comparing the results with a recent experimental study, assessing the efficiency of numerical fastener-based models.

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