Flexural Strength of Exterior Metal Building Wall Assemblies with Rigid Insulation

The critical load case for cold-formed steel girts in a metal building wall system is suction caused by wind loading. In North America, the girt flexural capacity for this load case is predicted with experimentally derived strength reduction factors, i.e., R-factors in AISI S100. This paper presents 50 vacuum box tests to determine the R-factors for the wall system with the rigid board insulation sandwiched between girts and panels. The testing variables include girts cross-section, panel type, insulation thickness and fastener. Different failure modes are observed in the test series, and the wall system capacity is influenced by the failure mode. The R-factors for the wall system with the rigid board insulation is presented.

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