Cold-Formed Steel Framed Shear Walls with In-Frame Corrugated Steel Sheathing

This paper presents the experimental results of an innovative configuration for cold-formed steel (CFS) framed shear walls using corrugated steel sheets as sheathing material. The shear wall configuration comprises corrugated steel sheathings placed inside the steel framing and therefore is known as an in-frame or sheet-in shear wall. The innovative shear wall configuration is noncombustible, is equal in thickness to adjacent walls, and avoids the difficulties inherent in the design and installation of the finish materials used in common corrugated steel sheathed shear walls. The test program in this research comprised cyclic testing of five groups of shear walls in which the stud arrangement, sheathing continuity, framing thickness, and wall aspect ratio varied. The results indicate that shear walls with a lower-profiled field stud and continuous sheathing had satisfactory performance with balanced shear strength and ease of assembly. Based on the test data, shear resistances of in-frame or sheet-in shear walls with corrugated steel sheathing under seismic load are recommended as the basis for design. These innovative shear walls exhibited substantially higher shear capacity than code-certified shear walls, and therefore can be used as a substitute for a lateral force–resisting system in midrise CFS light-framed buildings.